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KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 10): Pakatan Harapan (PH) has pledged to introduce a Fixed Parliament Term Act if it wins the elections and forms the government.
In a statement, PH’s manifesto committee communications director Rajiv Rishyakaran said the act will ensure that the dissolution of Parliament and the state legislature will only be called at the end of the term to minimise political instability; this is practised in countries such as Sweden, Australia, Norway and the US.
He said: “In the last two years, the country has been on the edge of its seat wondering if the post-Sheraton Move governments will call for early elections. This is very disruptive to society, and it affects, but not limited to:
The act is among four institutional reforms PH has committed to implement if it is voted into power.
The other three acts of reform are the introduction of absentee ballots, the Parliament Budget Office (PBO) and Constituency Development Fund (CDF) to ensure equal resources given to government and opposition Members of Parliament, and a review of major appointments by a Special Parliamentary Committee comprising members of various parties.
Rajiv said voters, especially youths studying or working in a different state, must spend a lot of money to travel to their constituencies to vote.
“Many people who are unable to afford this journey, or unable to make time for voting will have to forgo their rights to vote. Public holidays help, in terms of travel time but it does not solve this problem. Changing their voting location is also not viable as they have only temporarily relocated to a different location.
“Absentee ballots can come in many ways or forms, postal voting is an option. However, this can happen through voting centres throughout the country. This will make voting more accessible and not an expensive right…. [this extends the right to] voters outside of constituencies, especially the Sabah and Sarawak diaspora that are living in Peninsular Malaysia as well as those working or studying in Sabah and Sarawak, and vice versa,” he said.
Meanwhile, Rajiv said establishing a PBO that provides objective services to all MPs regardless of party for issues pertaining to estimated financial implication, or cost, policies and their policy recommendations will improve the policy-making process and level the playing field by offering access to cost estimation services and other forms of analysis usually available only to the government.
“PH will provide equal CDF for MPs regardless of party because they represent the interests of voters in their constituencies. This allocation must be relayed through the Parliament and not the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
“No constituency in this country should be marginalised or cut off because its people voted for the other political party. This will also stop the incentive for opposition MPs to defect to the government party, whether formally or informally,” he said.
Meanwhile, PH also proposed that the special parliamentary committee vet nomination for roles such as the public prosecutor, key positions in the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and Election Commission (EC), and the Inspector General of Police.
“While most of the government should be accountable to the ministers respectively, there are some positions that need to be impartial in carrying out their duties and to ensure that partisan politics doesn’t get in the way of doing the right thing.
“People in these positions cannot be cronies of the prime minister, and must feel safe in executing their duty. Vetting by the parliamentary committee will ensure that the best candidates, which are accepted across the political divide, no single political party can put through their nominee especially when other parties feel the person may be biased.
“Security of tenure shall be given to appointed individuals to ensure that their duration of service is not arbitrarily cut short by a sitting prime minister. This will give confidence to the officers to take action on the ministers, members of the ruling government and even the prime minister himself.
“For example, in the case of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), the attorney general was removed when taking action on Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and this should never happen again,” he said.
Then-AG Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail was heading a task force investigating irregularities in 1MDB and the flow of money linked to the fund into Najib’s accounts.
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