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POLITICS-MALAYSIA: Badawi's 'Toothless Bills' Harm Reform Agenda - Critics
By Baradan Kuppusamy
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 16 (IPS) - By tabling two of three reform bills, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has shown his hand and, not surprisingly, both have run into strong opposition within and outside parliament.
Badawi’s hopes of forging a consensus through the two crucial bills, designed to give him a positive legacy of reform as he prepares to leave office in March 2009, have been dashed by the harsh attacks.
One bill seeks to clean up the judiciary and provide for independent selection of judges, while the other aims to give greater powers to the Anti-Corruption Agency.
However, opposition lawmakers, lawyers, retired judges and even government backbenchers say the bills have been so heavily watered down that they have little bite.
"We are deeply disappointed," said Ambiga Sreenevasan, president of the Malaysian Bar Council, a professional body for 13,000 lawyers. "Although there are some improvements, the executive still has an overbearing presence."
The bills are expected to be passed, but without the broad support Badawi had hoped for.
Critics say that under the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) Bill that Badawi tabled in parliament on Dec. 12, the executive would continue to have undue influence in the selection process.
"Under the JAC the selection is done by a committee, some of whose members are appointed by the government," Sreenevasan told IPS.
"The bill gives power to the government to appoint or sack committee members without giving reasons," she said.
Of the proposed nine members of the commission, five would be appointed directly by the government. "Politicians and others connected with the government could end up in the committee and compromise its independence," she said.
In addition, the prime minister would have unfettered power to amend provisions for the JAC two years after the bill's approval in parliament. "We are worried - this last provision is highly unusual," she added.
At present, the chief justice draws up a list of candidates as judges from which the prime minister can choose and submit for royal assent, which is rarely withheld.
Last August a judicial inquiry concluded that the selection process was open to abuse, and politicians and businessmen had colluded with senior judges to promote individuals unfit for the Bench.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) bill gives wide new powers to officers to investigate and seize records, including bank accounts. But critics say that under the bill it still cannot prosecute independently as it must seek permission from the attorney general.
"We want the MACC to be placed under parliamentary [control] and be armed with independent powers to prosecute," said veteran opposition lawmaker Lim Kit Siang.
Badawi has defended the bills saying they would restore judicial confidence and fight corruption and were a major step forward for the country. "My promise to the people is to institute reforms and I am doing just that," he told parliament when tabling the bills.
"I am fulfilling my promise of reform before I leave," he said. "Let’s all close ranks for the sake of the nation."
Badawi, who took over as prime minister in 2003, asked his ruling United Malay National Organisation (UMNO), this month, to be allowed to remain in office until March so that he could carry out his promised reforms.
Opposition lawmakers want a delay of at least three weeks for them to study the bills and recommend changes, but the government, which has a 32 seat majority in the 222-seat parliament, is adamant they are passed without delay.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, while welcoming Badawi’s initiative to fight corruption and clean up the judiciary, said changes are needed to ensure the bills are independent and free of political interference.
Ibrahim said anti-corruption officers must be given full discretion to charge in court anyone under investigation and found involved in corrupt practices without reference to the attorney general's chambers for permission.
With the political clock ticking away, Badawi does not have the luxury of time to make changes and re-table the bills.
Already, the focus of the political establishment, investors and the diplomatic community is on the incoming leader, his deputy Najib Tun Razak, who takes over in March as the new prime minister.
Political insiders said Badawi tried but failed to persuade the entrenched political establishment to bite the bullet and approve the tough measures that were necessary to rehabilitate the judiciary, fight corruption at the highest levels, raise efficiency and check police abuse.
These are the three areas he had promised to act on after winning the biggest political mandate ever in the 2004 general election.
After voters mauled him and the UMNO in the Mar. 8 elections for failing to carry out the promised reforms, Badawi had little time left to rework the bills.
The abrupt manner in which the two bills were introduced last Wednesday, when the current parliament session was nearing an end, has sparked an uproar and fuelled charges that he delayed them in order to catch the opposition off guard and bludgeon the bills through.
Besides, the bills were never shown to the public and the cloak of secrecy that had enveloped the drafting of the bills does not help create for Badawi the image of an inclusive reformer.
Some of the clauses of the anti-corruption bill are admirable, including its wider scope of investigation, additional powers to question, seize, detain and give total anonymity to whistle blowers.
Nevertheless on the key issue of independence, transparency and accountability, the executive has "overpowering" say, giving the lie to the claim that the selection of judges and the anti-corruption commission would be independent.
Five "independent" committees would be formed to mitigate any excesses of executive authority.
"What we need is a simple, independent commission to select people of the highest integrity as judges and for another commission to catch corrupt crooks and effectively prosecute them," said a senior lawyer.
"What we have now are convoluted systems because of numerous compromises made to satisfy political factions... the key aims are lost in the urge to satisfy the entrenched political forces," the lawyer said.
A politically weak Badawi had apparently succumbed strong opposition to the reform bills. "It was a battle between the weak reformer and the strong entrenched forces," the lawyer told IPS. "The convoluted, watered-down versions are the result."
(END/2008)
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