PROGRESS ON REFORMS WILL BE FRAUGHT
Looking ahead, however, progress on the announced reforms will be fraught. The unity government has just made a strategic retreat on another signature deliverable, the separation of the attorney general’s and public prosecutor’s offices.
As with the term limit, the rationale is sound: Separating the responsibility for providing legal advice to the nation from that of pursuing criminal cases can increase both offices’ impartiality.
However, this will be challenging, as Anwar does not have full support from his own party, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR). A faction of 10 MPs affiliated with former PKR Deputy President Rafizi Ramli is pushing to limit the prime minister’s influence over the public prosecutor by establishing parliamentary oversight.
The argument is that splitting the two positions while retaining the influence of the prime minister over both offices would achieve little. PKR members have threatened to oppose this measure unless their concerns are substantially addressed. In response, the unity government has delayed this measure until the next parliamentary sitting.
Where to from here? Given the difficulty of engineering a two-thirds majority, the unity government may be best served by addressing other long-standing reform pledges that do not require a constitutional amendment.
There are many, including Prime Minister Anwar simply relinquishing the finance portfolio, passing a Political Financing Act or requiring the appointment of key positions, such as the head of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, to be vetted by a bipartisan Parliamentary Select Committee.
If it wants to reap electoral dividends from a reform agenda, the government needs to move with alacrity. Pakatan Harapan 1.0 was faulted for assuming they would be in power for a full term. If more low-hanging fruit are not harvested in the coming months, voters may feel that the unity government assumes it has all the time in the world and simply stay home on election day.
Dr Francis E Hutchinson is a Senior Fellow and coordinator of the Malaysia Studies Programme at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. This commentary first appeared on the Institute’s website, Fulcrum.
Read the full article here
