Will Harapan deliver on reforms promised in their GE14 manifesto?

After the historic vote by the Malaysian electorate in GE14, we expect serious reforms to uphold human rights.

Many of these legislative reforms can be implemented during the 100 days while initiatives to bring other reforms can also be started during the 100 days. This will involve reconstituting truly democratic institutions and new standard operating procedures for the police and other enforcement agencies.

In order of priority, we expect urgent initiatives to implement the following in order to uphold human rights of Malaysians:

1. Abolish the death penalty in Malaysia, impose an immediate moratorium on all executions pending abolition and commute the sentences of all persons currently on death row;

2. Implement the Independent Police Complaints & Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) and other recommendations of the Royal Police Commission to ensure transparency and accountability by the police and other enforcement agencies, so that police shootings and deaths in custody are minimised.

3. Repeal all laws that allow arbitrary declaration of emergency, torture, detention-without-trial and incommunicado detention including NSC, Sosma, Pota and Poca;

4. An end to race-based parties and policies. It is high time to replace race-based policies with needs-based measures that truly benefit the lower-income and marginalized sectors. With the current lack of ethnic diversity in the civil and armed forces, recruitment and promotion in these services be based on merit. At the same time, racist and hate speeches must be dealt with by appropriate laws and an Equality & Human Rights Commission.

5. Zero tolerance for corruption – The anti-kleptocracy campaign must extend to all cases of complaints against suspected corruption and abuse of power including, the super-rich politicians in Sarawak and the financial scandals during the decades of BN rule.

A truly independent Anti-Corruption Commission must be answerable to parliament and not to the Prime Minister with the power to recommend prosecutions for all offences of corrupt practice, cronyism, nepotism and abuse of power especially by the political elite; every discrepancy in the annual Auditor-General’s report must be accounted for and the officers in charge and political leaders responsible must pay for any negligence or corruption involved; political leaders who have been charged with corruption must step down while their case is pending in the courts.

6. Bring back elected local councils that have been suspended since 1965.

7. Abolish or amend all laws that violate the freedom of expression such as the UUCA, Anti-Fake News law and the CMA. Enact a Freedom of Information (FoI) Act at federal and state levels which is reflective of the peoples’ right to know; the national broadcasting authority must be independent and non-partisan and not answerable to the Minister for Information.

8. Institute judicial freedom by devolving the appointment of judges to an independent commission comprising judges, Bar Council representatives and NGO representatives in order to ensure the independence of the Judiciary.

9. Resolve the conflict of jurisdiction between civil and Syariah laws.

10. Suhakam commissioners should be truly independent and its annual report debated in Parliament.

11. Establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry to solve once and for all the problem of statelessness for Malaysians who were born here or have lived here for more than 10 years; permanent residence for foreign spouses (regardless of gender) of Malaysians, as well as the problem of undocumented migrants in the country.

12. Democratise the GLCs - The GLCs must be subject to the democratic control of the people and directed to implement good labour and environmental policies. Income differential within the GLCs should not exceed 1:20.

13. We want a strong and fairly distributed public-sector health, education, housing, transport services including highways which have been privatized to crony capitalists at the expense of the public good.

14. Redistribute wealth fairly - The increasingly serious gap in income inequality needs to be addressed through progressive taxation on the high-income earners, their wealth and property and effective tax laws to ensure there are no tax loopholes for the super-rich. Transfer pricing that enables the largest corporations to stash their profits in off-shore tax-free havens has to be curtailed by proper legislation. Capital allowances and tax holidays for foreign firms must be reviewed while a tax should be imposed on all international financial transactions and hedge funds.

15. Equal opportunities for all with no racial discrimination with enrolment into all schools including tertiary educational institutions. Besides building national schools using BM, mother tongue schools for the various ethnic groups should be built in education precincts sharing facilities to promote integration, ensuring proportionate financial support and training adequate teachers for these schools. Schools should be built according to demand by the local communities under the respective elected local councils.

16. Defend workers’ rights and interests - The right of all workers to unionise is a universal right and we want a progressive guaranteed living wage for all workers, including foreign workers. Workers must be given the right to association, full employment, retrenchment, pension fund and workers’ representatives should be part of decision-making in enterprises. At the same time, we would promote self-governing workers’ cooperatives to produce goods that are useful for society.

17. Child-care facilities in all public and private sectors for working parents, homes and day-care centres for the elderly and disabled through benefits, support services, including access to mobile healthcare.

18. Prioritise Orang Asal rights and livelihood – There should be a new Ministry for Indigenous Peoples to replace the redundant Ministry for FT after local governments are elected. The rights and livelihood of the Orang Asal must be placed at the top of the national agenda by recognizing their rights over the land they have been occupying for centuries, prohibiting logging in Orang Asal land and ensuring all Orang Asal villages have adequate social facilities and services.

The autonomy of the Orang Asal must be respected by ensuring their participation in all policy-making involving their interests and introducing policies and laws that comply with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), especially their right to customary land.

19. Sustainable development & environmental protection - All local people must be consulted before any development projects and all permanent forest and wildlife reserves gazetted. We want renewable energy projects that do not destroy forests or Orang Asal land and reject nuclear power and other toxic industries. The government should lead in the development of renewable energy and not rely on the private sector to suggest environmentally harmful and socially destructive projects. A people’s government would enforce recycling measures, responsible waste disposal and enact laws to protect animal welfare.

Many lawyers have pointed out that the repeal or review of our laws that violate basic human rights can be expeditiously accomplished within the first 100 days of the new Harapan government. Top priority must be given to overturning laws and actions which result in deaths, detention without trial and unjust incarceration. Efforts to initiate the other urgent reforms listed above should be likewise implemented within these 100 days.

Suaram will continue to be vigilant in our monitoring and documentation of all human rights violations committed by the federal and state governments and as always, we will do this without fear or favour.

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KUA KIA SOONG is Suaram adviser. - Mkini