Ramakrishnan opened the conference with a speech concentrating on the recent amendments to the Elections Act. This latest piece of undemocratic legislation, that virtually sneaked passed parliament, tilts the balance of the parliamentary system even more in the BN’s favour.

Under the new act, the electoral rolls, once gazetted, are legally unchallengeable in any Court. This means that the Electoral Commission is now above the law and, apparently, infallible. Even genuine mistakes, never mind deliberate manipulations, cannot be corrected in the courts.

Ramakrishnan also highlighted the financial aspects of the amendments. Under its provisions, the deposit to stand as a election candidate is raised from RM5,000 to RM20,000, with an additional RM10,000 deposit to ensure prompt removal of posters and other materials after the election. The limits on election spending have also been more than trebled.

The intentions of the amendments to the Elections Act are clear, Ramakrishnan suggested. By increasing the financial resource required to contest election and allowed for campaigning, the amendments clearly favour the well financed candidates over the less well financed. No one need ask, of course, which parties are better financed…

Women's Rights

Prema Devaraj spoke on the subject of women’s rights and parliamentary reform. Parliament, she reasoned, is the highest body in the land, and thus must take the lead in implementing and respecting women’s rights.

Yet, whilst parliament has ratified international conventions on the rights of women, it has only done so with some astounding reservations. At the most fundamental level of equality, the government expressed reservations over a number of Articles in the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. This included Article 5(a), which obliges the government to ‘take measures to modify social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women to eliminate prejudices and practices, which are based on the idea of inferiority or superiority of either sex’. Apparently, even this fundamental statement of sexual equality is against government policy.

In its own legislation, parliament also continues to deny women equal rights to men. Children born abroad of Malaysian mothers, for instance, are not allowed automatic citizenship. Those with Malaysian fathers are. Similarly, the foreign husbands of Malaysian women are not afforded the same rights as the foreign wives of Malaysian men.

Even if this were not bad enough, Prema drew attention to the appalling regard for women’s rights demonstrated in parliament itself. The conduct of many MPs – both male and female – towards women’s right is frequently abysmal, with female MPs being addressed as ‘cute’ or ‘gorgeous’. What would the reaction be, Prema asked, if Dr Mahathir was addressed in such terms?

Failure to Check

The next speaker was Lim Hong Hai, an associate professor with the School of Social Sciences at USM. The focus of Lim’s talk was the failure of parliament in its role as a check on the executive. He also placed the Malaysian case within an international context.

Lim noted two broad international trends that have compromised parliament’s role. The first is simply the increasing workload of ministers, making it impossible for parliament to keep track effectively. Secondly, he noted the tendency towards the centralisation of power in the hands of the executive. Whilst these trends may be particularly marked in Malaysia, even countries like the United Kingdom are suffering these problems.

Nonetheless, he noted that a number of initiatives to overcome these problems are underutilised in Malaysia. This includes the use of parliamentary select committees, made up of a group of MPs from both the government and opposition, which review government performance on a given issue, such as health or the environment.

Lim also noted that parliamentary checks are also often controlled by groups or individuals sympathetic to the government. In most countries, for instance, the Public Accounts Committee (POC) – the parliamentary body which monitors government expenditure – is chaired by a member of the opposition. Here, however, a BN member chairs the committee.

Abdul Rahman Yusof, the KeADILan MP for Kemaman, was the next speaker, kindly standing in for Keadilan President Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who had been unable to attend.

Abdul Rahman’s speech focussed on the need for reform of the legal system, in particular the repeal of undemocratic and repressive legislation. He reminded the audience of the continuous abuse of the Internal Security Act (ISA) by the government, from its use in the arrest of Anwar Ibrahim to the detention of 10 reformasi activists in April last year.

Impotence

Finally, DAP National Chairman Lim Kit Siang spoke on a wide range of issues relating to parliamentary reform. He began by examining the relationship between the human rights commission, Suhakam, and parliament. Parliament, he said, has ‘failed to give all necessary support to Suhakam’. Parliament has virtually ignored Suhakam when it has reported, and when it has failed to report, parliament has shown a distinct lack of interest as well.

The case of Suhakam is important in that it illustrates the impotency of parliament when it is over-stuffed with MPs from the government party. Not only does this mean that parliament is not inclined to debate and scrutinise government policy and actions, but it also means that the Executive has no reason to pay any more than lip service to parliament.

BN domination of parliament has meant that Malaysia has lagged behind other Commonwealth countries in the reform of parliament. Opposition days, parliamentary standing committees to shadow each ministry, an effective Prime Minister’s Question Time – all these things have been introduced in many Commonwealth countries, but not in Malaysia.

Finally, Kit Siang called for reform of the Dewan Negara. The Merdeka Constitution allowed for the introduction of an elected element in the Dewan Negara, and it is time for this to be introduced.

The debate covered a wide range of issues and proposals, but one common theme came out time and again. We cannot expect parliament to reform itself, it is up to us to force it to change. As Prema Devaraj said in her concluding remarks, we can all start tomorrow, by finding out who our MP is and going to speak with him about our concerns.

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