PETALING JAYA: Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) has given a score of 36.4 per cent for the Pakatan Harapan (PH)’s first year in power.
Focusing their report card more on electoral, political and institutional reforms, the electoral watchdog said PH had made commendable progress in reforming the institutions that safeguard the nation’s parliamentary democracy.
Bersih 2.0 chairman Thomas Fann said for a first-term government, the administration had passed their “report card” since the expected passing rate was initially only 20 per cent.
“They have surpassed expectations and are on the right track in terms of reforming,” said Fann at the report card presentation by Bersih 2.0, here, today.
He said he hoped that by this time next year, the government would be able to achieve a score of at least 60 to 70 per cent.
“You don’t expect a child to pass his final-year examination during his first-term exams.
“If they can achieve this by next year it would be laudable given that it would be more challenging.”
However, Bersih 2.0 highlighted some of the many promises which were either not fulfilled or broken.
Among them was the promise to grant the opposition leader status and provisions equivalent to a federal minister.
“We don’t see (Datuk Seri) Ismail Sabri having the same salary, office or same dignity as a minister. This is a crying shame for the PH government.
“When they (PH) were still the opposition, they often complained that no honour was given to the opposition leader.
“For PH to now fulfil this promise, it would not cost arms or legs,” he said.
Fann also highlighted two broken promises by the government which involved the same amount of funding for members of parliament (MP) and also the days for parliament sittings.
“Currently, PH MPs receive RM1.5 million annual constituency allocation while opposition MPs receive only RM100,000. That is breaking the promise.
“The opposition MPs were also elected by Malaysian voters and if you want to be partisan then what about PH supporters in those constituencies.
“So, why are we marginalising those constituencies and those voters?
“If there are concerns about how allocations are dispersed then improve on the mechanism of how it is dispersed and how this money is audited, make it accountable,” he said, stressing on the need for elected representatives to have equal funding.
Fann was also disappointed with the PH’s move to only have 68 scheduled days for this year’s Parliament sitting.
“Last year it was 57 days but since they only took over in May, so that’s fine. But this year, there are only 68 days scheduled for Parliament sitting.
“Now that doesn’t gel because the law minister (Datuk V.K Liew) had announced that they had over 100 laws to amend to bring about a reform, and yet they are not extending the days to debate on this.
“At least for the first two or three years of PH’s rule, there should be a minimum of 100 days sitting in Parliament so that they have time to go through all the reforms needed.
“Don’t delay and do not wait. This is an easy promise to fulfil, but they still broke it,” he said.
Bersih 2.0 also lauded a number of promises kept by the PH government.
This includes the prime minister not holding other ministerial posts as well as allocation reduction for the Prime Minister’s Department (PMD) from more than RM17 billion per annum to RM8 billion.
It also commended the government’s move to reduce the number of agencies under the PMD by moving them to relevant ministries.
The Bersih 2.0 report card focused on six promises out of the 60 promises in Buku Harapan and 44 sub-promises related to institutional reforms.