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Pakatan’s 100-day reform plan: Malaysia unbound

by Terence Netto
Malaysiakini
Dec 27, 10

COMMENT

You could call it ‘Malaysia Makeover Phase 1’ – this Pakatan Rakyat 100-day reform plan, enunciated a week ago at its second annual convention in Kepala Batas.

You could also call it by more grandiloquent terms like ‘National Recovery Plan’ or ‘Malaysia Revival Programme’, as both are appropriate to the necessity of the task and its gravity for our future.

Definitely, the latter two labels have got more oomph if less alliteration.

But they suffer for reason of their ready comparison to such monikers as ‘Great Leap Forward’ and ‘Marshall Plan’ – the former a misnomer for a murderously disastrous plan that brought much grief to China, and the latter a programme of economic aid that helped western Europe revive after the devastation of world war.

No, Pakatan’s 100-day reform plan is less hubristic in its goals, though surpassingly vital for the reform of the Malaysian polity.

Malaysians above 40 years of age know the fear the abuse of the ISA by the government had caused the people from their recall of Operation Lallang in 1987 when more than a hundred political and social activists were detained without trial.

They also know what the police force was before the sharp surge in shooting deaths of suspects 14 years ago led to public expressions of concern that reached a tipping point when Anwar Ibrahim emerged with a black eye while in ISA detention in September 1998.

Thus the rescinding of a baleful statue and the restoration of freedom from executive interference for the police would be a radical departure from the status quo under Umno-BN.

Revitalisation of the teaching profession

One is not saying that with these two steps, all would begin to be well with what ails the country; only that, absent these two measures, the rest of the list of reformatory acts – there is a raft of them that begs attention, ranging from reform of the judiciary to revival of academic standards in public universities – would take more time and could not be as adequately sustained, minus ISA nullification and police independence.

The latter two actions are germane to ‘Makeover Malaysia Phase 1′, which is really all about the country’s essential rescue from Umno-BN’s decades’ old deformations.

Other measures are not as equally critical to the makeover of this country, but they indicate the flight path of a Pakatan administration though Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has already accused Pakatan pilots of ignoring the constraints of gravity.

Giving teachers a RM500 raise across the board is just an early signal of how significant the revitalisation of the teaching profession would be under a Pakatan administration.

We need not advert to what HG Wells said about education as being the race between civilisation and catastrophe for us to recognise that good teachers remain the blood plasma of a country.

Hence the RM500 raise is like an emission from instruments that pick up seismic activity under the sea that warn of an impending tsunami.

Our education system is due for a tsunami of change and the teaching profession will early be primed for the task under the initial propulsions of a Pakatan administration.

Society needs impartial arbiters

The other reforms, outlined in the Pakatan 100-day programme, are necessarily ancillary to the radical two steps of ISA rescinding and restoration of independence to the police.

Without so much as indicating that other agencies for good governance would be similarly freed under a Pakatan administration, the latter two steps would cause peer pressure and generate a healthy sense of competitive rivalry to make the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Election Commission to follow suit as impartial arbiters.

That Pakatan has indicated that they would indeed free these two agencies in the first flush of their reformatory ardour only serves to underscore the urgency of their intentions and their certainty that the public would back them unreservedly.

The Pakatan 100-day reform plan is the opposition coalition’s response to Malaysian society’s urgent hunger for change in areas where such change matters the most.

10 Replies to “Pakatan’s 100-day reform plan: Malaysia unbound”

  2. Better late than never, Pakatan needs a slogan to rival Najib’s 1Malaysia. Pakatan may consider using any of the slogans below to blast Naib’s 1Malaysia.

    1. Malaysia Unbound 100
    2. Malaysia Makeover 100
    3. National Recovery Plan 100
    4. Malaysia Revival Programme 100
    5. Reformasi Malaysia 100

  3. ///The other reforms, outlined in the Pakatan 100-day programme, are necessarily ancillary to the radical two steps of ISA rescinding and restoration of independence to the police/// – Terence Netto.

    Yes, agree that “ancillary” is correct description – one should prioritize things like revamping of police/MACC, AG Chambers and courts.

    Police, MACC, prosecutors, judges and courts, prison doctors, legislations on detention without trial and sedition are security enforcement structures of the State.
    When they have formed a seamless and unbreakable link in a self-protective chain to guard the survival of the ruling government as well as survival of this self protective “chain”, it is very difficult to dislodge it by democratic processes.
    Which is why in the absence of implementation of IPCMC, there should be strong clamour for investigation and enquiry by an independent arbiter like Royal Commission for police reckless shootings and “sudden” custodial deaths. PR 100-day programme could dwell more on how to break of this self protective “chain” and render each of the state security enforcement structure, professional and independent by being accountable in cases of abuse.

    Even rakyat of Communist Russia recognize this.

    There is now a public oversight panel/commission (never mind made up of a motley bunch retired men/women of some standing) visiting Butyrskaya Prison to investigate the recent custodial death of Sergei L Magnitsky age 37. He was one of the lawyers in Moscow law firm Firestone Duncan who discovered the US$230 million tax fraud crime involving Russian police officers whom Magnitsky testified against in 2008 –the very same police officers who arrested him on spurious charges of tax evasion.

    It is reminiscent of what happened to TBH in Plaza Masalam, the police shootings of Aminulrasyid, (RMAF) Sergeant N. Tharmendran’s allegations etc here which we should have an independent royal commission to investigate.

    How could the authorities and state security apparatus investigate objectively and independently one of their own against abuse of power in light if esprit de corps jealously defending their self protective “chain”???

    If Communist Russians can see the need for such oversight panel/commission for such cases it is a wonder that we who have democratic pretentions and not communist/totalitarian in political organization is oblivious of that need.

    What does PR 100 day programme do in these respects to promote professionalism, independence and accountability of our state security apparatus???

  4. Go to Malaysiakini and look to the post..”Kit Siang…1Malaysia no nation building tool” and read a faceless and nameless ..’Anonymous” saying…
    DAP is “Deceive All People”
    I wish he repeat it here and lets see how many agrees with him.
    Without DAP…exposing all the corruptions…his future is surely like a tamed orang hutan to do monkey tricks for bananas from Najib.
    How idiotic can one be….yet so smart to come out with an explaination of what DAP means.
    Anyway…we have so many to tell him what UMNO B means too.

  6. Gee. Najib is a copycat, a plagiariser.

    He takes his ideas from elsewhere, tweaks it a little, and then says it is his ‘original’ idea.

    One country introduced this ‘1’ thing 20 years ago in 1990 and was very successful, long before 1Israel.

    Which country was it?, you ask. Watch.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piF_2PQSkBM

    Now Najib wants to replicate this in Ketuanan land.

    So why pay APCO RM 77 million per annum when Najib could have just pop over and ask for some sound advise?

  7. Hi PR, lets not talk about 100days reform. It would be great if you all in PR can form a shadow cabinet, and give us your input as to how you would manage the day to day issues as it happens around us. Let us see how you would manage the economy. Show us that there is a viable alternative. Lets us see what you are actually like, not what you say you are. Otherwise, you are also just good at sloganising, like the current lot of BN / UMNO.

  8. Not a bad idea at all. Jib wished for tower-power – 100-storey full of it. And we will have our 100-day reform to rival him. But jib’s tower-power, to all intent and purposes, is quite floppy now. Floppy because of all the objections by the people. And floppy because it will drain the country financially. Of course jib does not care. He may insist on trusting his floppy tower-power ahead, in any event. Alas, he would not be able to penetrate far with it. You see, a floppy-tower is after all no tower-power. A point which jib just does not seem to understand. But that is his funeral. And that is also something which we could cheer about.

    Now the 100-day reform. It will steal the mojo from jib’s tower-power. And more. It will also demonstrate pakatan’s commitment to reforms. It will also show pakatan’s critics the appropriateness of reforms. And most importantly, it will prove to everyone that the country will not crumble as a consequence of reform. Look at penang. Many many hundred days have now come to pass. And things have improved, actually.

    So let us do it.

  9. 100 days may be OK to establish the framework by which our nation can begin to start getting out of the quicksand.
    Some work has already been done like IPCMC and we can use that to reform the police.
    I expect it will take 3 to 6 months for civil servants to start cooperating but a few people may have to go; especially those on special contracts. Start promoting meritrocracy and less political appointments will ensure civil servants will realise that performance counts.
    We can expect FDIs to start returning 12 months after any new government shows by deeds that it means business.
    Singapore can claim to be developed but some things still don’t work that well.
    http://malaysiawatch4.blogspot.com/2010/12/singapores-third-world-causeway-traffic.html

  10. Like all potical slogans, such slogan should not be the cure-all for all the bluders of more than 30 years. Even if the concern of the majority of Bumis is takeb into consideration, the system of meritocracy can work in the country. Currently, it os based on total cronism even at the civil service. Many agenda may fail but you can always change them; but here it is the reverse. It is planned to produce negative results for the nation so that the selected few will benefit from such programme!
    To achieve what our little neighbour has achieved does not need miracle! It is nothing that we lack of, only POLITICAL WILL!

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