COMMENT | Bersih applauds the inclusion of pro-democracy reforms in GE15 manifestos by the four major coalitions: BN, Pakatan Harapan, Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA).

Although not as comprehensive as we would have liked, the pledges pertaining to strengthening our public institutions, restoring trust, and providing greater transparency are nonetheless a welcome development.

In particular, the separation of the public prosecution function from the attorney-general has long been a key demand by Bersih and other civil society organisations to remove doubts about selective prosecution and immunity from prosecution.

We are pleased to see that both Harapan and BN have explicitly promised to separate the roles of the AG and public prosecutor, while GTA was vague and PN did not commit to this.

Another ‘game changer’ is the promise to empower Parliament to vet major public office appointments such as the AG, inspector-general of police, chief justice, MACC chief and Bank Negara governor.

Political financing, devolution of power

This is an excellent move by BN, Harapan, and GTA to strengthen Parliament’s roles and lessen the concentration of power in the hands of the executive (specifically, the prime minister). Again, PN is mute on this reform.

Ideas that were long championed by Bersih and other CSOs, and in particular the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Political Financing – of which Bersih is a member of – also made their appearances.

All four coalitions pledge to introduce political financing regulations, with three of them (BN, Harapan, and GTA) specifying the will to create a Political Funding Act, while PN only promised to ban foreign donations to parties.

BN’s manifesto is the only one that stated its willingness to explore the devolution of power from the Federal Government to the state governments to increase efficiency and strengthen the spirit of federalism.

While there are little details on what this entails, we welcome this long-sighted intention to decentralise power from Putrajaya to the states, and we hope this will eventually restore local government elections.

Harapan’s manifesto has wider range

The Harapan manifesto deserves to be commended for its willingness to adopt a wider range of reforms such as establishing a Fixed Parliament Act, Parliamentary Services Act, a dedicated parliamentary budget office, and enacting term limits for prime ministers and chief ministers.

Harapan’s manifesto also goes a step further to protect freedom of expression by committing to review and repeal the Sedition Act 1948, Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, and Printing Press and Publications Act 1984.

Their pledge to introduce a Freedom of Information Act and to amend the Official Secrets Act (OSA) will help bring about greater transparency in governance and enable the media to do their reporting more effectively.

Key reference for voters

Bersih believes manifestos are key policy documents that demonstrate a party or coalition’s vision for governing the country. Voters should make an informed decision based on the respective coalitions’ manifestos.

Bersih also believes that manifestos are an important avenue for public participation in contributing ideas to political and policy discourse.

With the inclusion of several pro-democracy reforms by the different coalitions, Bersih believes this is a vindication of the civil society’s efforts to engage lawmakers and key leaders in various coalitions to lobby for the good of our multiparty democracy.

Bersih wishes to commend those manifesto crafters who prioritised the inclusion of institutional reforms. This is a step in the right direction towards ‘programmatic party competition’, where coalitions compete based on programmes and policies, not dangerous rhetoric over race and religion.

Institutional reforms are needed to achieve sustainable long-term systemic reform and to provide effective checks and balances in our democracy.

Finally, Bersih will continue to play our role in holding the coalitions accountable for the reforms pledged.

BERSIH is a coalition for clean and fair elections.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.