The Malaysian Bar - Proceedings at Roundtable Talk on Democracy After 50 Years of Merdeka: Challenges and The Way Forward

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Proceedings at Roundtable Talk on Democracy After 50 Years of Merdeka: Challenges and The Way Forward

Contributed by Chan Weng Keng

Wednesday, 12 September 2007 10:36pm

KUALA LUMPUR: 50:44 strikes up a certain symbolism but it is not as difficult to solve as those riddles in Dan Brown’s bestseller, The Da Vinci Code.

It simply means it is not quite correct for us to say that Malaysia has undergone 50 years of independence. This is because to an East Malaysian, Sabah and Sarawak joined the Federation only in 1963. Therefore, both states are considered independent from then until now, only a span of 44 years compared to their counterparts in West Malaysia.

Perhaps this is one aspect that sets the 50:44 Merdeka Celebration apart, from other Independence Day Celebrations held in Kuala Lumpur recently.

Launched recently on September 6, Merdeka Celebration kicked off as a 10-day festival, providing an excellent opportunity for Malaysians to partake in an array of exciting programmes, by and large viewed from very different perspectives.

First to hit the road was a roundtable talk on democracy in Malaysia after 50 years Merdeka, co-organised by The Human Rights Committee of Bar Council (HRC) and Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM) with Amnesty International (AI), playing a strong supporting role. The talk was carved out into four sessions stretched over an entire day from 8.30am till 5.00pm in the manner of the following:-

• Session 1 : Presentation of Joint Statement on Democratisation in Malaysia.

• Session 2: Roundtable on taking stocks of development and lessons of 50 years of Democratisation in Malaysia.

• Session 3: Roundtable on Main Obstacles of Democratisation in Malaysia.

• Session 4: Roundtable on Confronting the Challenges of Democratisation in Malaysia

Presentation of Joint Statement on Democratisation in Malaysia.

50:44 That eventful morning saw a total of 60 civil society organizations (CSOs) including HRC, who endorsed and presented a Joint Statement On Democratisation (JSD) so as to rededicate themselves and their members to the advancement of democracy and freedom in Malaysia. Calling upon all Malaysians to support their cause, the JSD reveal six core areas in which progress towards a strong and resilient democratic system should be focused on. These are:

• Upholding Constitutional rights by Rescinding Authoritarian Legislation
• Restoring the Independence of the Judiciary
• Ensuring Fair and Free Elections
• Advancing Media Freedom and Independence
• Fostering civil society participation and a culture of transparency and accountability
• Protecting and celebrating the nation’s diversity.

Roundtable on taking stocks of development and lessons of 50 years of Democratisation in Malaysia

One of the questions addressed during this session was how to strengthen the democratic base in Malaysia. So the session heard the following speakers from four different perspectives.

Andrew Khoo of HRC (picture), proposed amongst others the deepening of enfranchisement in Malaysia. Based on a recent advertisement that 5 million eligible voters in our country have not registered, he attributed this to sheer apathy and indifference of those concerned. Hence he argued for automatic voter registration.

Richard Wee of HRC, called for the establishment of an Independent Judicial Commission (IJC) to take charge of appointment and promotion of judges, as one way of addressing the issue of Independence of the Judiciary, though he admitted to an equally complicated problem of deciding who sits in the Commission.

Dr DZulkifli Ahmad of the Coalition for Clean and Fair Election (BERSIH), argued, amongst other measures, for the cleaning of the Electoral Rolls, employment of indelible ink, and abolition of postal voting for security personnel.

While Ms Gayathri, from the Center for Independent Journalism (CIJ) explained at great length the dire need for greater press freedom, which ought to be a good thing for all citizens.

Roundtable on Main Obstacles of Democratisation in Malaysia.

But what then are the main obstacles to democratisation in Malaysia?

That was the question that the 3rd session panel, the largest for that purpose, tried to tackle during an interactive discussion. All in all six speakers from diverse interest and segments of society, encompassing representatives of religious groups ( Islamic and other religions), Group of Concerned Citizens, and others took an active part in the deliberations. The six were Rev. Dr Herman Shastri, Zaid Kamaruddin, Rustam Sani, Lee Ban Chen, Arumugam K. and Hishamuddin Rais.

These speakers respectively identified in their own ways the obstacles as issues relating to inter-faith viewed at before and after Merdeka, decision making based on form rather than substance, compatibility between democracy and diversity, existence of emergency laws, marginalised groups, and illusion of a mind artificially painted by those in power.

Roundtable on Confronting the Challenges of Democratisation in Malaysia

The final session endeavoured to find solutions to the obstacles discussed earlier.

Haris Ibrahim, introduced a curious but ambitious concept called People’s Parliament He pointed out that civil societies have to source amongst themselves candidates as alternative to politicians we have today in our country. I wonder whether it is another way of saying, becoming a politician without joining a political party.

But Sean Ang of Citizen Think Tank seemed to have more interesting and innovative solutions. He suggested and called for support of current grassroots democracy initiative, lobby for the set up of National Grant Scheme for Democracy and research on online democracy.

Arutchelvan of Jaringan Rakyat Tertindas (JERIT) was, however less optimistic.

He spoke of the worrying trend among Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) satisfying themselves with just press conferences, having the same old journalists, when what they should be doing is to go down the ground more and work with people.

Concluding remark

Participation from fellow audience in terms of inputs, questions and comments were visibly encouraging. As a concluding remark I think ultimately we have to tackle the question of turning all the multifarious views and approaches expressed at the roundtable into working reality. This is what I think is the next step after the roundtable, and a very challenging one indeed for the CSOs.