Dr M may be the only Harapan leader to read IRC report, says Ambiga

Institutional Reform Committee (IRC) member Ambiga Sreenevasan has said she is not sure who else among the Pakatan Harapan leadership has read the committee’s report on proposed institutional reforms, apart from Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“I don’t even know if every agency was given a copy.

“I don’t even know who has a copy and I am pretty certain that not many of our leaders – I know Mahathir (photo) has read it – I don’t know who else has read it.

“I can hazard a guess, nobody actually,” Ambiga said in a forum titled ‘Institutional Reforms Committee (IRC) Report: Why the Secrecy?’ held in Kuala Lumpur today.

Even if the leaders and government agencies were to read only the chapters that relate to their duties, that is fine too, she said.

“But I don’t even know who has received this report and my concern is if we don’t know then that means there is a duplication of work, because there are reform measures taking place,” she said.

Ambiga (above) said so far she only knows of the National Centre for Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption (GIACC) which has looked at the report and have started implementing some of the recommendations with relation to anti-corruption.

She lamented that if the Pakatan Harapan leadership had seen the passion of the people who were so eager to participate in the IRC’s process of coming up with the report on institutional reforms, they would look at things differently.

“We received so much input, I can’t even begin to tell you how much the people wanted to participate in the process.

“They (the Harapan leadership) are missing out on that, the passion of the people, the expertise of the people, the valuable feedback that we got. All these people came, all making a huge effort because they want to be part of the process of building the new Malaysia.

“Now if only those in government had seen what we have seen… if only they had seen how engaged the public was, then they will understand how much goodwill of the people they had (at that time),” Ambiga said.

With the government’s treatment of the report, she said she is afraid she would never see that kind of passion from the people again.

“I will never see that passion again, I’m afraid, because if you do this (hide the report), you won’t see that passion again and that is the passion that is going to push the engine for change,” she said.

She then suggested jokingly that the government can do a pilot test by first releasing only one set of recommendations to the public to see what happens.

“Release one set of recommendations and see whether the government falls down the next day.

“If it does, then okay, don’t release the report,” she said, eliciting scattered laughter from the crowd.

Meanwhile, activist Siti Kasim (above) who was also one of the forum panellists, gave the government an ultimatum to publish the IRC report within 48 hours from today.

“The politicians sitting in the Dewan Rakyat are not our bosses.

“They should remember that the people and the rakyat, we are their bosses,” she said.

If the government is unable or unwilling to carry out the proposals in the report, Siti said they should hand the report to civil societies.

“Give it to us, the civil societies.

“We will help and manage the delivery of the recommendations, I know we have more than capable and smarter people than you politicians,” she said.

Ambiga was part of the IRC, which falls under the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP), set up to look into the reform of key institutions such as the Judicial Appointments Commission, the police force, the MACC and the Election Commission among others.

Aside from Ambiga, other members of the IRC were retired Court of Appeal judges KC Vohrah, Mah Weng Kwai, National Patriots Association president Mohamed Arshad Raji and constitutional law expert Shad Saleem Faruqi.

They submitted their finalised report to the CEP and the Prime Minister’s Department in July 2018. - Mkini