The newly released Barisan Nasional Manifesto for the 14th general election on 7 April 2018 is a great disappointment for Malaysians. As this election is supposed to be a close contest between the ruling and the opposition parties since independence, the reluctance of BN to directly tackle political and social turmoil plaguing the country suggests that BN is either incapable of overcoming these problems or there are benefits to be gained from perpetuating these problems.
The BN manifesto promises Malaysians status quo, as it offers very little significant improvement in governance. Instead it is embellished with distracting election goodies. This raise the questions about effectiveness of the government transformation programmes and economic transformation programmes that have cost Malaysian tax payers millions of ringgits. Have these programmes failed to deliver what they were designed to do? Where will TN50 actually lead the country, with policies which do not deliver results?
As the ruling coalition which enjoy significant executive and legislative power, BN must offer Malaysians more than just periodic political gimmicks once every electoral cycle. Instead it has to formulate real solutions and put in place corrective measures to alleviate deficiencies of current public policies and their implementations, and to diligently curb practices which leads to corruption, state violence, inequalities, destructions of democracy institutions or violations of rights, as well as unsustainable development.
Absence of Reforms Way towards a Dysfunctional Nation
We applaud the proposal to enact a sexual harassment act, an incentive for employers to set up child care facilities and the economic strategies that aimed at the bottom 40 percent of the population. However, the BN manifesto failed to respond to the major political and social reforms advocated by civil society organisations. Many promises in the manifesto suggest only minor improvements within the current regulatory framework or for government institutions.
We call upon BN to respond to our criticism of the manifesto for omitting some of the most essential reforms of our governing institutions and systems, including those which demand:
a) Clean and fair elections and the restoration of local council elections
b) Abolishment of draconian laws that restrict media freedom
c) Abolishment of laws allowing detention without trial, such as the SOSMA, the POCA and the POTA.
d) Reform of the MACC to make it into an institution which is independent, professional and protects human rights
e) Repeal of repressive laws that suppress such freedom of speech and freedom of assembly
f) Ratification of International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
g) Safeguarding of native customary rights over land of the Orang Asli in Peninsula Malaysia and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak
h) Reform of the National Human Rights Institution (SUHAKAM)
i) Budget of at least 3.5% (world average) to 6.2% (OECD average) of GDP to be allocated to health spending
j) Abolishment of the University and University College Act
Inadequacies of New Policies
Policy on Food Security
While BN promises to implement a national food security policy, to transform the agricultural sector to become a high-income industry and to increase food exports, the continual calls for granting farmers and breeders land entitlements have all fallen on deaf ears.
Since 2015, hundreds of farmers and breeders from 24 areas in Perak have been protesting the usurpation of lands by state GLCs and developers, resulted in the formation of the Coalition to Save Perak Farmers and Breeders. The federal and state governments have failed to solve the land issue. Without holistic approaches to land reforms, how could the food security policy be successfully implemented?
We urge BN to promise a land rights policy to ensure all farmers, urban settlers, indigenous people and the poor are entitled to lands.
Policy on Environment Protection
In the manifesto, BN vows to strengthen the environmental quality monitoring program, to ensure sustainability of socio-economic development, to enhance environmental protection and to provide a more efficient solid waste disposal service.
On the contrary, we have witnessed serious environmental mismanagement by the government in the case of the use of cyanide in gold mining in Raub, Lynas rare earth refinery plant and Bauxite mining in Kuantan, uncontrolled deforestation in Sarawak, Perak and Pahang.
It is high time that the government reforms the environmental laws by introducing human rights impact assessments to scrutinize the effect of the development project on adjacent communities before implementation.
Licenses for tree logging activities have to be reduced and controlled and related information, such as logging areas and period under which concessionaire, has to be made accessible to public BEFORE the action takes place.
Policy on Transparency and Good Governance
The BN manifesto proposes to improve transparency in local governments by making the council meeting online and town hall meeting compulsory. But the BN government has been cold to the civil society’s demand for the freedom of information act and the abolishment of the official secret act. A private member’s bill on the freedom of information brought up by Subang MP R. Sivarasiah had been rejected by the Dewan Rakyat.
To promote transparency and curb corruption, the BN government should have enacted the freedom of information act and a sunshine law that make asset declarations compulsory for all elected representatives and top civil servants. The BN should also promise to amend the official secret act to disclose all information to public except highly sensitive data such as defense weapon and military intelligence.
Besides, BN proposes to introduce the public petition mechanism to ensure that the government responds to any online petition with more than 30,000 signatures. But in the past 5 years the BN government has failed to act on at least two petitions with millions of signatures, namely the Stop Lynas and the Chinese Education petitions.
Moreover, the government often provides short, ambiguous and lack of details parliamentary replies to opposition members of parliament, we doubt the feasibility and sincerity of such proposal. A parliamentary hearing should be held and the raised issues must be debated in the Dewan Rakyat instead of giving some ambiguous “responses”.
Policy on Human Rights Protection
It seems that BN's solution to rising crime rate is installation of CCTVs and involvement of community in crime prevention activities. The manifesto suggests installing CCTVs to curb death in custody, even after a custom officer, Ahmad Sarbani, was found dead in the presence of CCTVs.
The first step toward tackling crime and professionalization of police force is to depoliticize the police, that is, to stop using police as a political tool of surveillance and repression against opposition and social movements. The government has failed to restructure the police force by reforming the special branch unit and instituting the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).
The Civil Society Caucus for Policy Reform had called for the enactment of anti-torture act, compulsory human rights education for all public servants and the ratification of United Nations Convention against Torture as avenues to curb state violence and death in custody.
Without addressing these serious deficiencies and carrying out swift reforms, the nation will continue be plagued by the outcry from farmers, environmental pollutions, institutional corruption, unprofessional police, human rights violations and lack of transparency in public administration. The repressive and undemocratic regime will definitely lead Malaysia to become a malfunctioning and underachieving nation.
Education Reform and Building Human Capital
We are of the view that the education chapter of BN manifesto has failed to address the underlying problem of our education system and is unable to meet the aspirations of parents and the challenge of fast-changing economy in the 21st century.
The manifesto emphasises on infrastructure developments, such as allocating funds to refurbish school buildings, increasing accommodations of boarding schools, providing 100Gbps high speed internet for universities and strengthening the bilingual programmes.
Policy on National Education System
The manifesto did not address the problems of deteriorating quality of national schools in stark contrast to the popular Chinese primary schools that have 12% of non-Chinese students now. The poor quality of teaching, racial and religious discrimination against ethnic minorities and indigenous communities in public schools are main factors that parents shy away from public schools. Besides, the issues of uneven infrastructure and fund allocation between fully subsidised and partially subsidised schools are not addressed.
The Ministry ought to adopt a rights-based policy to eliminate discrimination and inequality in education. A zero discrimination policy must be instituted to deal with public complaints and to take action against offenders. The education system should be managed by professionals rather than racially biased administrators. A merit-based education system and an inclusive multicultural school environment will benefit students of all ethnicities.
Since the implementation of PPSMI in 2003, the BN leadership has been peddling the myth that English proficiency can be achieved by teaching Mathematics and Science in English. Such an assumption is wrong because the policy only familiarises students with mathematical and science terms in English, it does not help to master English.
Instead, the government should improve the teaching and learning of English subject curriculum to enable students to master the English language. Both PPSMI and DLP are short-sighted and redundant policies that should be scrapped to avoid waste of resource.
Decentralisation of education from federal to local authority for an effective education reform is highly recommended. It is government responsibility to fund and to run small schools according to the needs and demands of local communities. The national curriculum serves as a reference framework but autonomy is devolved to each school in day-to-day operations, including pedagogical methods and enculturation of values. No single resident-child should be denied the basic rights to access 11 years of free elementary and secondary education, regardless of nationality, ethnicity or religions.
Policy on Higher Education Institutions
BN’s manifesto does not touch on main issues of our higher education institutions. The 1971 University and University College Act and the repressive “Aku Janji” letter have forged the culture of obedience that is reluctant to challenge the status quo, and is against the fundamental spirit of university which is critical to knowledge acquisition and innovation.
Racial discrimination is rampant in the universities that never adopt merit-based systems for teaching staffs and researchers. Only a small proportion of professors and faculty deans are non-Malays and none of the Deputy Vice Chancellors of Public Universities is non-Malay. The racialization of higher education deter the road to academic excellence and better world university ranking.
Thus, the BN government should abolish the UUCA, Sedition Act and “Aku Janji” measure to encourage critical thinking among students and teaching staffs. Professors and lecturers are encouraged to lend their thoughts or criticism on political and social issues, be it in speech or written form.
The government shall amend the Act555 or The Malaysian Private Higher Education Institution Act 1996, so to restrict minister and Director General to have right to overwrite every single clause in the Act on whims and fancies. Only with the amendment, the higher education could be largely free from thought-policing.
More resources such as research and development grants should be given to public and private universities. Promotion of teaching staffs and administrators should be based on merit, not ethnic background.
If these crucial educational issues are not addressed, the current trend of opting private schools due to the poor quality of public schools will likely to continue. More students will study abroad after completion of A-level or UEC, some of them will work overseas after graduation, this will cause serious human capital flight. Malaysia will become incompetent in the era of knowledge-based economy, which is very much dependent on high quality human capital.
Conclusion
Overall, the BN manifesto provides neither solutions nor reforms for a variety of issues that are plaguing our nation.
BN does not provide amicable solutions to our divided society. The manifesto also failed to respond to problems that have caused the uproar of civil society, for instance, rampant corruption, land grabbing, environmental injustice, human rights violations, racial discrimination, and undemocratic and poor governance.
BN manifesto makes no effort to correct the deficiencies of our education system, such as a school environment that is racially and religiously intolerance and the wrong antidote to improvement of English language education. The higher education policies also stifle the academic freedom and discourage critical thinking, which finally lead to brain drain.
In a nutshell, the BN manifesto promises us a dim future of a divided society, dysfunctional state and flight of human capital. The incumbent federal regime that has been in power since independence has become complacent for too long, it is necessary to change the power holder in Putrajaya in near future as a way to reform the country.
Lim Yi Hui
Chairperson
Agora Society
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