Empowering voters to keep tabs on MPs

Old-timers and newcomers are forming a new breed of pressure groups that aim to educate voters and rate their elected representatives. SANTHA OORJITHAM of NSTonline asks politicians and election-watchers how big an impact these groups will have in the next general election

Datuk Dr Syed Arabi Idid says more groups are being formed

Teresa Kok says it’s good for MPs to feel pressure from the ground

Ng Lip Yong wants public to be educated on role of MPs

“PEOPLE are The Boss” was a simple statement launched by a few activists before the 1999 general election, in response to the argument that Malaysians should be grateful to the government.
They stressed that the polls were to select a “management team” whose job was to serve the people.

Along with similar movements such as the Women’s Agenda for Change and Suqiu (see page 23), it faded away before the 2004 polls.

But this year, one of the initiators, Wong Chin Huat, plans to revive the group — and work with the new People’s Parliament on a voter education campaign.

Although election is not due until July 2009, new groups are mushrooming and old groups are springing back to life in a bid to empower voters, define the election issues and hold candidates accountable.

“The response to the Women’s Agenda for Change in 1999 was quite poor,” recalls Maria Chin Abdullah, executive director of Women’s Development Collective (WDC), a non-governmental organisation promoting development from women’s perspective).

It remained dormant until 2005, when the WDC began compiling a yearly “report card” on elected representatives.

The NGOs behind the agenda haven’t decided whether to conduct any programme for the forthcoming polls.

Wong was also discouraged by the fallout over the voter manifesto of the Malaysian Chinese Organisations’ Election Appeals Committee (better known as Suqiu).

Suqiu hired him as executive secretary when it set up a secretariat in May 2000.

He went to parliament, collected the Hansard, lobbied MPs and reported back to supporters through e-groups.

“We tried to send the message that we are here and have a role as a watchdog,” he recalls.

The activist, now lecturing at a private university while working on his PhD in Political Science on how the electoral system affects the party system, says Suqiu did not achieve much, “but it brought in a new form of activism, when civil society found we could use parliament to lobby”.

“We need not wait for candidates to present their manifestos but can make our own and monitor their acts after they are elected,” he explains.

All three groups — People are The Boss, Women’s Agenda for Change and Suqiu — were unsighted during the 2004 election.

Datuk Dr Syed Arabi Idid, whose Elections Study Group at the International Islamic University monitors election campaigns in Malaysia and the Third World, says there were no groups keeping scorecards of elected representatives that year.

“There were no big issues and there was a swing right through to the BN,” he said.

But now, he notes, “with the impending elections, more pressure groups, such as People’s Parliament and Citizen Think Tank (CTT), are being formed”.

The People’s Parliament aims to give citizens a voice, make MPs accountable and craft election issues, says its founder, lawyer Haris Mohamed Ibrahim.

It already has e-groups for 12 of the 216 parliamentary constituencies.

With Haris as facilitator, once each group has at least 10 members, they are to start working out issues of local and national concern for them.

Then they will ask to meet their MP, whose responses will be published on the website (harismibrahim. wordpress- .com).

“If the MPs are really unmoved, we don’t want them in the next round,” says Haris.

“We will communicate that to the party leaders and may contact the opposition to find out who they are planning to offer.”

They might also field independent candidates from within those communities, he adds.

CTT also plans to review elected representatives on their performance and give citizens a platform.

Registered members will be able to rate politicians.

Moderators will decide whether to post or delete entries while editors will research MPs and set standards for the rating.

CTT is also recruiting lobbyists, says one of its founders, IT specialist Sean Ang.

If there is overwhelming support for an issue or suggestion, the website (www.citizenthinktank.com) promises, “our lobbyists will then fax your issue to the respective politician and organise a lobby group to ensure that the issue is taken up”.

“We agree with the concept, reminding MPs of their actual role and educating voters,” says DAP’s Seputeh MP Teresa Kok.

“It’s good for MPs to feel pressure from the ground. When they don’t support such appeals, their names come up.”

BN’s Batu MP Ng Lip Yong, who is Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister, says he is “quite prepared to debate with all these people but it’s irrational to expect us to sign all of these manifestos. We have been tested on the frontlines”.

Ng welcomes the new groups if they educate the public on the role of MPs and state assembly representatives.

Constituents “want us to do what is closest to their heart, tackling drains and roads and traffic congestion.

“Legislators are not council workers or civil servants. We should be suggesting new policies and looking at national development.”

Some elected representatives doubt these new groups will have an impact on the general election.

“Most of them are NGO individuals preaching to the converted,” says DAP’s Kok.

Women’s Agenda for Change, Suqiu and People are The Boss did not affect the 1999 election much, says Professor Syed Arabi: “At that time, computer penetration was low and issues raised via the Internet were not taken seriously — either by voters or elected representatives.”

Today, groups like People’s Parliament are more active, articulate and sophisticated, he notes: “But the majority of the websites are in English and are tackling abstract issues such as democracy, press freedom and corruption.

” They are reaching a mainly English-speaking audience, speaking about what they feel should be the issues of concern — but that is not necessarily the case.”

Both voters and elected representatives will check out the various websites that are springing up, says the election watcher. “Whether they take it seriously or not is a different matter.”