MALAYSIANS must manage their expectations of Pakatan Harapan, said Attorney-General Tommy Thomas, as reform of the state institutions could take years to bear fruit.

It was more realistic to judge PH on its achievements at the end of the five-year term, said Thomas, as public debate continued over what PH did and did not achieve in its first 100 days.

For example, he said, it could take 10 years to teach the civil servants to serve the government of the day instead of the ruling political party as had been their practice for the past 61 years.

“The three branches of government (judiciary, executive, legislative) require massive reforms and I would add to those the institutions of the civil service, the Election Commission, academia and the media,” Thomas told a forum on PH’s first 100 days, in Kuala Lumpur, yesterday.

“It is absolutely impossible to achieve those kinds of reformsin 100 days. The reforms are massive,” he told the forum organised by the Malaysian Alumni Association of the London School of Economics and the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS).

In its election manifesto, Buku Harapan, PH had outlined major changes it would make in the country.

These included restoring the principle of separation of powers between the three branches the government, eradicating corruption and abuse of power and making key institutions such as the civil service and law enforcement independent of partisan interference.

PH claims that years of uninterrupted BN rule have enabled systemic corruption in the state institutions and led to the decline of civil liberty and a decayed democracy.

In addition to its manifesto, PH made 10 pledges which it promised to achieve in its first 100 days. It has delivered only two – to abolish the goods and services tax and to stabilise the price of petrol.

Six of those promises are currently being worked on while two more have been shelved due to limited financial resources.

Long-term changes such as cleaning up the rot in the civil service would take more than one term to accomplish, said Thomas.

“Please don’t set your expectations too high for it is too early to judge them. It is more realistic to look at their performance after five years.”

Another forum participant, Dewan Rakyat speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof said some of the parliamentary reforms were already fulfilled.

These include forming parliamentary committees to oversee rights and gender equality, legislation and the national budget, he said.

To ensure his neutrality in the Dewan Rakyat, Ariff said he had relinquished his posts in Amanah, a component party of PH.

Other manifesto promises which were fulfilled in the 100 days were to separate the finance portfolio from the prime minister’s office and to relocate functions such as public transport management to the appropriate ministry, said Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry Ong Kian Ming.

“We hope that the public, the opposition and civil society continue to hold us accountable to our manifesto and to pressure us to deliver these promises, because that’s the only way to see them fulfilled.” – August 26, 2018.