MALAYSIANS enjoyed more freedom and institutions were in better shape “in the early years” of Malaysia, said Tunku Zain Al-Abidin Tuanku Muhriz, founding president of Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas).

“And I suppose I could make another appeal to history and I would think most Malaysians would agree with the premise that in our early years, when the country was led by so-called elites, we had better checks and balances, better leadership.”

“We had institutions that were better. We had more freedoms,” the second prince of the Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan told a conference on democracy in Southeast Asia in Kuala Lumpur today.

Tunku Zain Al-Abidin was responding to a comment from the floor on the elites with regard to the topic “How to manage pluralism and identity politics in democracies.”

“It strikes me that someone with an elitist background like Tunku Abidin can talk about the need for Southeast Asian countries not to be led by political and democratic elites. My question is how do we address the concern that it may need other elites to bring down the existing elites?”

Tunku Zain Al-Abidin replied, “I’m not sure. As with any perceived group in society, there is diversity within and I think elites, or at least families of elites, have a stake in democracy as well.”

“They are about political rights. They are about freedom. They want to see their children’s opportunities secured as well.

“And I think it’s very important to identify those elites who are abusing the instruments and machinery to enrich themselves and others maybe who don’t. So I don’t think there is a correlation between elites and the state of the institutions.

“I think it’s about the rights of the individuals and adhering to the Constitution. What I’m saying is, it’s more important to restore the facets of the constitution which has been distorted.”  

Meanwhile, Tunku Zain Al-Abidin disagreed with a comment from the floor regarding a proposal to impose ten-year term limits on prime ministers.

“I think terms limits are to prevent the abuse of power, but I think having checks and balances in the institutions is more important and I think there are cases where you have a genuinely popular prime minister elected, you would be denying the democratic rights of the people who wish to see him returned to office (after serving ten years).” – September 3, 2017.