TRANSPARENCY is the cornerstone of good governance, hence the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government should make public the Institutional Reforms Committee (IRC) report, said lawyer Siti Kasim at a forum this morning.

She lashed out at PH for not releasing the report that would reveal how much it had done after capturing federal power in the May 2018 general election.

“Why the secrecy? It should be made public already.

“This is a symptomatic of everything that has gone wrong with PH. They were voted in by the people with good intentions.

“What we should not expect is the new government to be so weak in its spine or lacking in courage and strategy that it assumes the loud voices of opposition are the voices of real voters.

“Our elected representatives practically backtracked on everything based on the misconception of reality or the lack of thinking skill to outmanoeuvre the opposition.

“Keeping of the IRC report under wraps is cowardice and lacking in strategic thinking to promote it,” she said at the Institutional Reform Committee Report: Why the Secrecy? forum organised by human rights group National Human Rights Society (Hakam).

The forum was moderated by Prof Gurdial Singh of Universiti Malaya and attended by Hakam president S. Ambiga and Suaram executive director Sevan Doraisamy.

In May 2018, the IRC was set up to give recommendations to the government concerning key national institutions, and had submitted its final report to the Council of Eminent Persons and Prime Minister’s Department in July 2018.

The committee comprised former Appeals Court judge K.C. Vohrah, former Appeals Court judge and Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) commissioner Mah Weng Kwai, National Patriots Association (Patriot) president Brig Jen (rtd) Mohd Arshad Raji, Ambiga, and legal expert and professor of law Shad Saleem Faruqi.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Liew Vui Keong told the press in 2018 that the report would be made public after the report was discussed in detail by the cabinet.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad also said he was willing to make the report public but a consensus must first be reached between the parties in the PH coalition.

“If you ask me, I will release it but I’m not a free agent. I have other people (to consider). One has to remember we have five parties in the government and each one has its own agenda.

“If I’m going to be democratic, I have to consult them. It depends on the consensus that we achieve in the coalition.

“But, of course, I like to be popular. If you want me to release, I will release,” he said last October.

Meanwhile, Siti has given the government 48 hours to release the report to the public.

She added that if the government does not know how to handle the delivery of the report, it should hand the matter over to the civil societies.

“Give it to us if you do not know how to handle the delivery. We will help and manage the delivery of the recommendations. We are more than capable and smarter than you politicians.

“The PH government must release it in 48 hours from today. You parliamentarians holding ministerships are not our bosses. We are the bosses and you work for us. You do not lecture us, we lecture you.” – January 18, 2020.