Reforms needed to reduce incentives for reps to defect — Bersih
KUCHING: The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) has called for reforms to be made that would reduce the incentives for elected representatives to defect.
The electoral watchdog warned that excessive incumbency advantages will lead to more defections of elected representatives that can undermine the country’s parliamentary democracy and economic stability.
“Malaysians who want economic stability must demand the dismantling of such structural flaws to pave way for a healthy multiparty competition based on policies and programmes,” it said in a statement issued yesterday.
The statement followed Sunday’s defection of two Parti Keadilan Rakyat lawmakers – Tebrau MP Steven Choong and Julau MP Larry Sng – who declared their support for the ruling Perikatan Nasional coalition.
Bersih pointed out that excessive incumbency advantages were the real driver of defections and suggested five distinct reform points to improve the voting process in Malaysia.
The first was equality before the law to circumvent from politicians defecting in order to avoid prosecution, as the incumbent government through the office of the AttorneyGeneral and direct control of key enforcement institutions can either protect or prosecute its opponents.
The role of the Public Prosecutor and that of the Attorney-General must be separated, it stressed.
“The second is equal constituency development fund (CDF) allocation. A common reason offered by defectors is their need for CDF in order to serve their constituency.
“Perikatan Nasional (PN) MPs receive RM3.7 million allocation per annum while opposition MPs receive RM100,000.
“This unequal allocation is an abuse of power and misuse of taxpayer’s money to give an advantage to ruling political parties,” it said.
Bersih added there was a need for a comprehensive law to ensure non-discriminatory and transparent CDF and public funding of parties alongside transparent, accountable and reasonable private funding.
For the third reform point, the watchdog suggested the need to limit the number of ministers and deputy ministers as well as bar MPs from lucrative public offices in order to stop “shopping for loyalty”.
It said most defectors were rewarded with ministerial or deputy ministerial positions and appointed to governmentlinked-companies (GLCs) that come with huge monthly salaries.
“Bersih 2.0 calls for a cap to the size of the Cabinet to 50 (ministers and deputy ministers) and a total ban on elected representatives being appointed to GLCs,” it said.
For the fourth and fifth points, Bersih said parliamentary reforms were needed to empower both opposition lawmakers and government backbenchers.
It called for the enactment of a party-hopping mechanism called ‘Recall Election’, where voters in a constituency could initiate a process to trigger a by-election if they were dissatisfied with the defection of their elected representative.