IT is important for the government and Pakatan Harapan to honour their memorandum of understanding on political reform and stability if they don’t want to lose the people’s trust, Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) said today.

“Failure to comply with the MOU will lead to a major trust deficit on the government not only among the rakyat but also international observers,” said TI-Malaysia president Muhammad Mohan in a statement.

He said several parties were urging for a snap election in the hope of furthering their political ambitions.

“It is important that we take stock of the events that have unfolded since the (2018) general election.

“The nation has since gone through three prime ministers and four state elections; the economy has been in a slump for over two years; Malaysians have even been urged by the government to withdraw their retirement savings on more than one occasion.

“Despite the (existence) of a national action plan and announcements of commitments to fight corruption and abuse of power, fundamental reforms have been skewed, shelved, postponed repetitively and ignored by the various leaderships of the nation.

“There is more to democracy than elections and campaign treats or threats,” said Muhammad.

He said parliament must uphold its commitment to the rakyat and the reform the laws as planned since the last change of leadership and the signing of the MOU for transformation and political stability between the federal government and PH.

The MOU initiated by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob promises key reforms such as to limit the prime minister’s tenure to a maximum of 10 years, introduce an anti-party hopping law and reform parliament but none of them have materialised.

Last week it was announced that amendment bills to limit the PM’s tenure and prevent party hopping would not be tabled in this parliamentary session as the government needed to gather more feedback from BN and Perikatan Nasional. 

There have been calls from Umno for parliament to be dissolved soon so that BN would not lose its winning momentum.

Under the MOU, parliament may only be dissolved after July 31 when the agreement expires.

Umno has also called for the prime minister not to extend the MOU. – March 21, 2022.