High time Malaysia had an ombudsman commission

TO give true meaning to the government’s concept of transparency and accountability, and if we are sincere and determined to develop a nation of public servants genuinely eager to serve and to give back to society, it is time we introduce the long overdue institution of the ombudsman commission.

In any real democracy the citizens’ right to hold their elected government to account is fundamental and should always be jealously guarded and strenuously protected from crafty politicians who may have the tendency to overstay or harbour the illusion that they may be indispensable.

Under the rule of law, Parliament is supposed to be answerable to the people and this is demonstrated by the people’s access to the services that the government promised to deliver. Hence it is imperative that the people should be able to see how their money is being spent, and more so the priorities agreed to by the people when they elect the government.

Any government in any nation should never be complacent nor take the people for granted, and to demonstrate this they should set up a way people can complain about their services or misuse of public funds. To enable the public to really be stakeholders and to be able to control government actions, some effective mechanism must be installed to address such complaints.

The ombudsman commission should be a supplement to the courts and to Parliament; it need not have enforcement powers but should instead put forward recommendations to resolve problems. The emphasis should be on the resolution of complaints of maladministration and the promotion of transparency and accountability.

We humbly urge the government to take steps to form an ombudsman commission and to allow Malaysia to join the 80 over nations in the rest of the world that have an ombudsman institution and, hopefully, take the meaning of democracy to a higher level.