KUALA LUMPUR (March 12): The Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) is encouraged by the pledges made by political parties for the Johor state election, which include institutional reform, transparency and accountability pledges in all four manifestos.
The think tank applauded the pledge by Barisan Nasional (BN), Pakatan Harapan (PH) and MUDA, in particular, of equal constituency allocations for all state assemblymen regardless of party — a call that IDEAS had made in a paper jointly published with BERSIH.
“It is also encouraging to see the newest party on the block, MUDA, committing to transparency in how political funds are raised and spent, which should set an example for other more established parties,” said Aira Azhari, senior manager at IDEAS’ Democracy and Governance Unit.
“The absence of political financing legislation at the federal level should not prevent political parties from taking their own initiative to be transparent themselves,” Aira said in a statement.
She said IDEAS hopes for commitments from Perikatan Nasional (PN) and PH to improve the performance, governance and accountability of state-level government-linked companies (GLCs).
Unlike federal GLCs, state GLCs do not receive much public or media scrutiny, she said, which is why these pledges are important and must be fully committed to when in power.
“Pledges to improve the effectiveness of the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) are also positive, notably by PH and BN, where the addition and strengthening of the select committees undoubtedly raise the capacity of the DUN to keep the state government accountable.
“BN’s pledge to make it mandatory for state assemblymen to declare their assets to the MACC also contributes to fighting corruption, and is an issue IDEAS has researched on,” said Aira.
She also lauded PN’s pledge to increase transparency in the procurement process of state government projects, pointing out that IDEAS has been working with civil society organisations at the subnational level to assess the level of transparency of state government budgets and infrastructure projects.
Aira said IDEAS will publish a report on this later this year and is hopeful that the findings will be useful for all state governments in Malaysia to move towards more transparency and accountability in how public money is spent.
“To the people of Johor, we urge you to hold your political leaders accountable to the promises they make. Good governance is at the bedrock of many of our day-to-day issues, and we are hopeful that these promises will be committed to by whichever party/parties form the state government.
“IDEAS hopes this practice of policy-driven politics will continue in all future elections to come,” she added.
