LETTER: The so-called "revelations" on corruption and a host of other issues plaguing the police force as claimed by former Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Hamid Bador, his hues and cries days before he officially retired, seem to have opened the floodgates for certain quarters, especially opposition members, to hit hard on the present government.
Pasir Gudang Member of Parliament and PKR's Hassan Abdul Karim and Pakatan Harapan's Dr Abdul Aziz Bari who is also Tebing Tinggi state assemblyman, joined in, calling on the government to revive the special parliamentary select committee formed by PH government during its short 22-months stint in power, to allow parliamentarians to endorse any appointments for vital positions in essential services such as for the post of IGP.
The appointments of Attorney-General, Election Commission chairman as well as the chief commissioner of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, also should be left to PSC, they said of their demands which were carried in a newspaper.
In the same breath, both said once PSC agrees on the candidates, only then the prime minister is consulted to bring it up before the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. In a way, this would ease what they described as the prime minister's absolute power, hence, freeing political interference in such appointments.
Are they trying to say that a small number of Members of Parliament, say 10 or 12 MPs, work better than 100 in studying bills and scrutinising ministries and agencies? PH set up several select committee during its less-than-two-years in power, with opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim heading the reforms caucas.
These powerless sub-legislative committees, each comprising just a small number of Members of Parliament, were tasked with budget formulation, state and federal relations, bills planning, defence and home affairs, major public appointments and rights and gender equality.
In as far as major public appointments is concerned, we should flashback PH's candidates of choice during its rule – former PKR member, Latheefa Koya who was picked as MACC chief commissioner, Hamid as IGP and Tommy Thomas as the Attorney-General.
The committees were formed to serve as checks and balances to all ministries, but the reforms as promised by PH did not go far enough! The majority of MPs who made up these committees were very much active PH politicians. In that sense, of course, they would only appoint persons of their choice or their comrades who could work conveniently with them.
In conclusion, the demand put forward by these two opposition members should be taken with a pinch of salt, simply unjustified and unrealistic, but more towards putting pressure on the present government.
PH made history by defeating the Barisan Nasional government in the last general election but it faced a lot of criticisms in the months that followed. Its ambitious election manifesto featured a long list of tall promises that ended up unfulfilled. Throughout its brief stint, it constantly assigned blame to the fallen BN government for the many troubles and controversial issues it faced.
The people's expectations were sky-high but unfortunately, the underperforming PH government came down fast when changes did not take place like what had been promised. Perhaps, Hassan and Dr Abdul Aziz should relook at the coalition's political parties' failures of infinity first before shooting empty bullets.
HAMID YUSOF
Damansara Utama, Selangor
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times