The eight-week meeting of the opening of the 15th Parliament will end with a big bang if the Reports of the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) and the Institutional Reforms Committee (IRC) are declassified and tabled as White Papers in the last two days of Dewan Rakyat next week.
This is one of the five proposals I had made in January this year to make the meeting of the opening of the 15th Parliament the most memorable Parliamentary meeting in Malaysian history by initiating institutional reforms for Malaysia to achieve the twin goals of uniting the plural society in Malaysia and to reset and restore Malaysia as a first-rate world-class nation.
If it is too late to declassify the CEP and IRC Reports for tabling as White Papers in last two days the Dewan Rakyat meeting next Monday and Tuesday, the Anwar Unity Government should table the two reports in the Dewan Negara as the Senate is slated to meet until next Thursday on April 6.
The CEP and IRC Reports should then be studied by the relevant Parliamentary Select Committees which had been set up and for reports to be submitted to the May/June meeting of Dewan Rakyat.
I was shocked a few days ago by the revelation of Jomo Kwame Sundaram, a member of the Council of Eminent Persons, that the CEP never produced a report as it was the secretariat under former finance minister Daim Zainuddin which prepared the CEP report.
This make the declassification of the CEP and IRC Reports by the Anwar Unity Government more urgent and necessary, as it was never the original intention to classify both the CEP and IRC reports under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) and keep them away from public debate and discussion..
A strong case can be made that Mahathir Mohamad as the Prime Minister of the short-lived Pakatan Harapan government which came to power in 2018, has betrayed the wishes of the people for institutional reforms by locking the CEP and IRC reports under the OSA.
I had made numerous calls for the publication of the CEP and IRC Reports, the first time as far back as 13th October 2018, when I cited the CEP Chairman, Daim Zainuddin, as calling on the government to make the CEP recommendations available to the public.
What reasons have the Anwar Unity Government to continue to place the CEP and IRC Reports under the OSA?
I had always been mystified as to why Mahathir had refused to ask the Cabinet and the Pakatan Harapan Presidential Council to declassify the CEP and IRC reports, unless he had always been a “closet” enemy of institutional reforms in Malaysia. C V
Why should there be such secrecy on matters of clear public interest with regard to the hundreds of recommendations related to governance, integrity, and corruption prevention in the CEP and IRC reports?
Although the Perikatan Nasional (PN) leaders and MPs had tried their level best to create political instability by further polarising the racial and religious situation in Malaysia, the Anwar Unity /Government has survived these threats so far.
I am more confident than before the Opening of the 15th Parliament on 13th Feb. 2023 that the Anwar unity Government will last five years, although this cannot be taken for granted as a second Sheraton Move political conspiracy lies in every nook and corner.
The 10th Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, must keep his promise when he was appointed Prime Minister that he would not compromise on good governance, the anti-corruption drive, judicial independence, and the welfare of ordinary Malaysians, which is why he should declassify the CEP and IRC reports of 2018.