An eye on the reps
Groups are keeping track of all Yang Berhormat as ‘democracy is a two-way street’.
NON-GOVERNMENTAL organisations have been tracking election candidates since 1999 to see whether they deliver on their promises. But for the first time since the 13th general election, the Government has also been keeping track of campaign pledges.
The Aku Janji Persekutuan
(National Pledge) initiative monitors fulfilment of the Barisan Nasional 2013 manifesto, says a government official.
“Corporate communications units in each ministry are tasked with tracking every pledge relevant to their ministry. They send the results monthly to the Implementation Coordination Unit and Strategic Communications under the Prime Minister’s Office,” she says.
At the end of 2015, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced that the Barisan Nasional government had fulfilled 95.4% of its promises under 17 strategic initiatives of its Aku Janji pledge since the last general election.
He had chaired the Aku Janji
Federal Government committee meeting and ordered the committee to monitor the progress of the projects every three months.
The programme focuses on ministries, not elected representatives. For “report cards” on how individual representatives have performed, the public should turn to NGO websites.
Empower, which promotes women’s political participation, equality and rights, will be announcing this month a manifesto with fellow members of the Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) about what women want from their MPs.
“We want to systematically track endorsements,” says Empower’s executive director Angela Kuga Thas. “They must lead to concrete statements, actions and voting on Bills after GE14 and until the next election.” They plan to post updates on their Facebook page.
Before the 2013 polls, the Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights asked MPs for their work experience, plans if elected and thoughts about the role of an elected representative.
Since then, project manager Lim Ka Ea says, they have not been actively tracking MPs but they do ask them to fill up the questionnaires when they meet. The information is on the MyMP website ( http://mymp.sinarproject.org/ms/ wakil-rakyat/) and is updated with their contact information.
The MyMP project aims to help voters “get to know the candidates who have been elected, what their stands are and engage them”, says Lim.
Only about 50 of the 222 MPs responded to the survey back in 2013. Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau was one of them.
“It is useful for the voters,” says the Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, when asked why.
“They will be informed on what I’ve said I would do and what I’ve done, and would be able to evaluate my performance.”
All of the three Prime Ministers under whom he has served have also had feedback systems, he adds. During Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s time, MPs had to fill up forms about problems in their constituency.
There were similar questionnaires during Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s time, and Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak also holds regular reviews.
Candidate Dr Ong Kian Ming also responded to the survey and, after he became a first-time MP, has provided material to Sinar Project, which maintains the MyMP site. Written replies to MP’s questions are not provided on Parliament’s website, although they can be found in Parliament’s library and hard copies are handed out to MPs and journalists. So Ong passes his copies to Sinar Project, which uploads them (at https://pardocs.sinarproject.org/).
“I am a strong believer in open data and transparency,” says the Serdang MP. “In a small way, this initiative has helped push out more information and data to Malaysians and those interested in finding out more about Malaysia.” And he hopes this has increased the quality of debate on public policy.
Sinar Project aims to track how MPs are voting, what they are saying in Parliament and their attendance, says coordinator Khairil Yusof. They already have data on 4,200 past and present candidates.
They are also matching 100,000 contracts from the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) database against past and present candidates. “We have 188 matches so far, from both BN and Pakatan Harapan,” says Khairil ( http://mystars.sinarproject.org).
The newest of the trackers is Kuasa, an NGO linked to Parti Keadilan Rakyat and formed after GE13.
Until June this year, they tracked 82 Perak and 56 Selangor assemblymen, looking at the promises in their manifestos and how they delivered ( mykuasa.org/ms).
“We are sharing the information so people know what to expect and, if it is not delivered, they know they have grounds to be disappointed,” says its chief executive Praba Ganesan.
They also gauged the representatives’ responsiveness to voters: “We sent them messages via email, Facebook and Twitter asking for help, to see how long it would be before they replied,” says Praba.
Both state assemblymen and MPs have to meet the need for engagement and keep their promises, says Praba. “Democracy is a two-way street.”