Malaysia coming of age, at last! Really?

SEPT 16 — The prime minister’s Malaysia Day speech last night evoked the kind of hope and excitement the country has dreamt for. Indeed, it has been a long time coming for Malaysia. For a long-standing government to dismantle draconian laws that have literally secured and safeguarded it in power is in fact very commendable and laudable. Arguably, he deserves to be congratulated for critical reforms that are long overdue anyway.

Putting it on record, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has announced that he is repealing the Internal Security Act 1960, the Banishment Act 1959 and the three emergency proclamations will be finally annulled. Najib also wants to amend the obnoxious Printing Presses and Publication Act 1948.

The Restricted Residence Act 1933 and the law against assembly in public places i.e. Police Act (section 27) would be reviewed to allow for free assembly. Citizens would no longer, presumably, be apprehended for their political conviction or criminalised for expressing their socio-political conviction, as witnessed in the Bersih2.0 peaceful assembly.

It must be made categorically clear that I am not against Najib on these reforms. Any intention for reform, by anybody, let alone the premier, must be accorded its credit. It would be both silly and unbecoming of me to reject his good intention. I have stated it earlier that the rakyat have long waited for this.

But a response in the tweet that I immediately got, when I commended Najib for his reforms while watching him speak last was: do you really believe in what he says?

I tweeted back by reminding the guy that “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”. Perhaps that appeased him for a while and that is exactly what I want to share in this piece.

Much as I would like to join the chorus of praises or accord him a standing ovation, I hasten to add that I want to take all these announcements with a lot of salt. I want to reserve my support and accolades for him.

A relentless optimist though, as I have claimed to be on numerous occasions, I want to be conditionally elated by these as they are coming on the back of a looming general election (GE) — a GE that is about the toughest for a government that has overstayed its welcome, hence understandably enough of the gracious efforts on the part of the power-that-be.

Having campaigned so strongly for Najib to initiate genuine reforms as prerequisites to the efforts of propelling the nation to greater heights and competitiveness, why am I not rejoicing, you may want to ask. Wasn’t it the case that I took pains to make Najib understand the demands of new politics in my various critiques including my “An open letter to the 1 Malaysia PM” (January 16, 2010)? Now that Najib has openly declared his reform measures, you might want to know why am I getting cynical and turned a sceptic?

My rationale for taking this stance is quite straight forward. As I have stated earlier of the “proof in the pudding is in the eating”, I now seriously want to see Najib taking this through.

But Najib’s two years at the helm have been arguably far from satisfactory. Most disheartening is his obvious penchant for flip-flopping. For all his forte for big-sounding rhetoric, the bottomline is, the citizenry couldn’t escape noticing his indecisiveness, his lack of steadfastness and will to see through all his well-intended promises and vision.  

The list is a long one. It has become more pronounced of late. The latest is the polemical six per cent service tax on prepaid phone users.

His flip-flopping on the Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) was more disastrous, caustically criticised by none other than the late Dr Zainal Aznam and Professor Mohd Ariff of MIER, both astute economists. His flip-flopping on Bersih2.0 was even more fatal and unforgivable.

His indecisiveness and non-action on racial slurs, religious bigotry, endemic cronyism and the yawning income gap are, at best, depressing and, at worst, deplorable. It conjures emptiness, shallowness and distrust to his oft-repeated rhetoric of 1 Malaysia and sweet promises of inclusiveness and “prosperity for all” through a high-performing economy and high-income.

Against this backdrop of inaction and non-performance, how could Najib expect us to believe that his well-meaning reforms will see the light of the day and finally come to fruition?

On the one hand, it cannot be denied that Najib has perhaps stolen a march on the opposition which has been pressing for such reforms.

Najib might go down in history as the prime minister who repealed the diabolical ISA. But after all the vehement reasons and rationale for having it continued all these years after the emergency era, would it go down well with his own party, especially warlords like Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and not the least with the right-wing Perkasa that has been outsourced by his party to defend such undemocratic laws.

Is Najib fully aware of the entire ramifications and implications of his pronouncements on his party, the length and breadth of it and not the least on the entire rakyat and the nation, both legally and politically? Considerable research into this is certainly warranted to fathom the far-reaching implications.

Is Najib willing to correct the many wrongs of those detained without trial? Is Najib willing to stand by the standard required by the abolition of all those laws that have given the power-that-be inequitable advantage to stifle press freedom, right to peaceful assembly and usurping the right to democratic and bona fide dissent by the rakyat and political parties?

Najib and his party have a lot of “eating humble pie” to do as they have rigorously argued for all these draconian laws to be perpetuated once upon a time or rather for a long time indeed. Will his party accept Najib “political moves” seating down? Will his party condone and admit all the sins of omissions and commissions of these draconian laws? Are they willing to stand trial, now?

Incidentally, the minister in charge of internal affairs of the country and its domestic security, whatever that might now mean to anyone, had vigorously denied any reform to the ISA, right to the last hour before the speech delivered by his good cousin, the PM.

We are also rudely reminded that despite the strongest mandate enjoyed by Pak Lah after the 11th GE of April 2004, none of the reforms he set out to do materialised.

It would be in keeping with the reform agenda of Najib that he seriously considers amending the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 (UUCA) that has stifled intellectual freedom and perpetuated mediocrity. It is also to eliminate the shackles of fear that has undermined students’ development, leadership and creativity. 

Perhaps it is high time to similarly put in place an Act that secures access to information, a prerequisite to an empowering society that additionally will be the ultimate check to the endemic corruption at all levels of society.

It would be extremely naïve on my part to now argue that Najib is doing all these for the conviction he has, albeit latently, that these draconian laws are in contravention to civil liberty and diametrically opposed to fundamental human rights. Has Najib become suddenly enlightened? Hence, it goes without saying that Najib has perhaps stolen a march on the opposition Pakatan Rakyat, as it was PR that had been pressing passionately for such reforms.

It might be presumptuous on my part to say that he is doing all these for his political survival and expediency, but everyone knows that I’m not far off. Regardless, let us take him on, at face value, and give him the chance to prove himself.

However, one can’t help but ask, should he win a resounding victory at the next GE, what is there to prevent Najib and BN from reinstituting similar laws? That would be the greatest folly of Najib and Umno-BN!

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.