AFTER years of street protests to push for reform, Bersih 2.0 now has a place in the Prime Minister’s Office in Putrajaya assisting a special committee to evaluate and improve the electoral system.

Newly elected Bersih chairman Thomas Fann said the electoral watchdog was invited to sit on the Electoral Reforms Committee under the PMO and led by former Election Commission chief Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman.

Bersih has been tasked with scrutinising the election, voter registration and delineation processes, Fann said in an interview with The Malaysian Insight.

“We will play our part to contribute proposals with the best recommendations to the prime minister,” he said.

Bersih’s situation these days is a far cry from the street rallies it staged to call for reform under Barisan Nasional rule. 

Bersih held its first street demonstration on November 10, 2007, roughly four months before the 12th general election on March 8, 2008 that saw BN lose its two-thirds majority in Parliament for the first time since 1969.

The fifth and last Bersih rally was held on November 19, 2016, and while it still demanded electoral reform, it also galvanised strong anti-BN sentiment as it took place at the height of revelations of fraud and power abuse involving then prime minister Najib Razak and debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

The government then was not open to dialogue, Fann said.

“Previously, not by our choosing, we had to hold protests to make our demands heard, but post-GE14, Bersih has a slightly different role.

“A slew of institutional reforms has been incorporated into the Pakatan Harapan manifesto (and) we see our role as holding the government to its promise, to engage with it on how to fulfil these promises.” 

After 11 years of struggle, Bersih is still a watchdog, but one that watches to ensure reforms are instituted.

“We still hold the same ideals as before in the sense that we still want to ensure free and fair elections, and to ensure that government institutions are still independent,” said Fann.

Enforcement powers for Election Commission

A change that Bersih is pushing for is the enactment of laws to give the Election Commission enforcement powers.

For example, Fann said, the EC was able to point out the election violations in the Port Dickson by-election campaign committed by the candidates, including PKR president Anwar Ibrahim, and was powerless to penalise them.

Bersih executive director Yap Swee Seng had invited Anwar to a dialogue to discuss his list of breaches.

To date, however, Fann said there had been no response from Anwar.

“Anwar has not come back to us on the by-election offences we allege he committed, but we welcome him as well as any political party who wants to understand a bit better how we interpret the election laws.” 

Fann, who founded the civil society group ENGAGE, said politicians could no longer ignore election laws as they now carried weight under an independent EC and judiciary in “Malaysia Baru”.

“Politicians run the risk of being hauled up for such offences, so they should take the laws seriously,” he said.  

Until and unless laws are changed to give the EC enforcement powers, Bersih will continue to highlight alleged offences and issue warnings to errant politicians.

It is up to the public to take action by making police reports, Fann said, adding that “true authority lies with the people”.

Correcting ‘unfair’ electoral boundaries 

On the electoral boundaries redrawn by the previous government before GE14, Fann said under the law, it was only possible to correct the boundaries eight years after the redelineation exercise, unless Pakatan Harapan initiated a constitutional amendment to change the number of seats in each state.

New EC chief Azhar Azizan Harun has said the new boundaries would be analysed to determine if the redelineation was constitutional.

Fann believe it was not, saying “there was no reason” for the government not to undertake to correct the boundaries before the next general election.

He said even the opposition were likely to support such as exercise as states like Kelantan and Terrenganu were redrawn unfairly by the previous administration.

“Parties like Umno, PAS and Gabungan Parti Sarawak will support this (redelineation exercise), as it is basically bringing justice back to some states that were dealt with unfairly.

“There is no reason why the PH government should not consider a redelineation exercise before GE15.” – November 17, 2018.