MAY 16 — The Malaysian Bar welcomes the new government’s swift and positive commitment to institutional and political reforms (“Reforms”), which is one of the key pillars in the Pakatan Harapan manifesto. For many years the Malaysian Bar has repeatedly urged the previous government to take the need for Reforms seriously, and to implement critical Reforms with urgency.
The formation of the Committee on Institutional Reforms (“Committee”) by the government’s Council of Eminent Persons is an important and commendable step towards the realisation of such Reforms. The broad ambit of the Reforms required by our country points to the onerous and difficult mission faced by the Committee.
The Malaysian Bar recognises the challenging task that the government confronts in fulfilling the great expectations of the rakyat, and calls upon all concerned to allow the process adequate time to unfold, given that this new government is merely a few days old.
The pledges made by Pakatan Harapan prior to the 14th General Election, and the significant and decisive pronouncements by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad since then, give the rakyat hope that the nation is heading in the right direction.
Effecting genuine and substantial Reforms and strengthening the rule of law require considerable time and effort, in order to ensure that the Government takes the appropriate measures from the very outset of the process.
The rule of law encompasses not just the meaning of the words themselves, but an entire set of legal conditions, judicial principles, and jurisprudential philosophies.
The Malaysian Bar stands ever ready to assist the government and the organs of state — including the Committee — to achieve their reform objectives, and will, to this end, make available all the expertise and resources we can muster.
* Press release by George Varughese, Malaysian Bar president, on May 16, 2018
** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
