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CONSTITUTION AND LEGAL REFORM

Speech by
Y.B.M. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
at the Luncheon Dialogue Sesson
Organised by the British Graduates Association, Malaysia
on Saturday, 20.11.21, at 12.30 pm
at No.31, Jalan Langgak Golf, Kuala Lumpur

1. The political, social, economic reality we are facing today

has roots in our political and constitutional system. If we do
not take remedial measures in the form of constitutional and
legal reforms, the crisis we face today will be beyond our
control and our people’s suffering will be out of conrol.

2. Under the present Constitution and political system that we

have, the Prime Minister’s powers are immense. There is
too much ambiguity to an extent of where the power begins
and ends. We need to examine this.

3. We need a panel of constitutional experts to advise us to

what extent the powers of the Prime Minister in an elected
democracy must be limited and to what extent the powers
of the Prime Minister are subject to accountability in the
Dewan Rakyat and the consitutional court.

4. It is also necessary to examine the Prime Minister’s powers

of creating ministries, Ministers and Deputy Ministers. This
is an area the Prime Minister can use to placate the
Members of the Dewan Rakyat to support him to achieve a
parliamentary majority.

5. We must also examine the legal powers of the Prime

Minister to appoint Members of the Dewan Rakyat to GLCs
or statutory bodies in order to placate them for political
support in the Dewan Rakyat.

6. The office of the Prime Minister in our Constitution, as it

stands, is open to unaccountable exercise of power. That
must not continue because it discredits our democratic
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system. There are many other areas where there is some

ambiguity of power which needs to be made precise or
have clarity.

7. It is in these circumsances that we witness the circus of

“party hopping” bringing disgrace to the Dewan Rakyat and
the widespread public opinion that the Dewan Rakyat has
become a “joke”.

8. No Malaysian believes that the elected representatives who

have betrayed the pledge and mandate on which they were
elected is for any political reason or principle. In the public
domain it is common knowledge money, and fear are rife.

9. The decline in the public standing of the Dewan Rakyat has

to be arrested for the sake of the nation and the only
remedy available is for the Dewan Rakyat to take its
responsibilities pursuant to Section 8 of the House of
Parliament (Privileges and Powers) Act 1952 which
empowers the Speaker to initiate proceedings to enquire
whether these members of the Dewan Rakyat have acted
in breach of Sectiion 8(d) which states:

“the offering to or acceptance by any member or officer of

a bribe to influence his conduct as such member or officer
or the offering to or acceptance by any member or officer
of any fee, compensation, gift or reward for or in respect of
promotion or an opposition to any bill, resolution, matter,
rule, or thing submitted to or intended to be submitted to the
House or any committee.”
“This all important legislation is often ignored by the casual
observer of Parliament although it contains and confers on
Parliament very wide powers to buttress its constitutional
position as a primal organ of government”.

10 These reforms cannot come about without expert

assistance and advice, but nevertheless we must begin to
search for answers and remedies to whichever part of our
Constitution is weak and has a potential of endangering our
democratic system.
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11 I have been in politics for a long time. I have also been in

public office of great responsibility. I have reached a stage
in my life where I am no longer able to help the country to
come out of this serious crisis we face today. Therefore, it
is my intention to spend the next few years to help to initiate
reforms which will either avoid a crisis, or when a crisis of
the nature we face today faces the nation, we have
constitutional and legal systems to resolve it.

12. To be able to resolve our economic and social issues within

an economic frame is fundamental. If politics fail,
government fails. If government fails, we become a failed
state. A failed state means we have failed the people of
Malaysia. We must at all costs avoid that from becoming
true.

13. I therefore propose the following reforms:

(i) The Constitution to be amended to establish a

Constitutional Court that will allow direct access to
resolve any political or constitutional dispute. The
jurisdiction will include any matter the Court considers
involves a constitutional issue or democratic rights and
violation of human and civil rights.

(ii) The establishment of an Ombudsman independent of

government who would have access to the Constitutional
Court with the right to represent citizens on any matter of
political or civil rights.

(iii) Any Member of the Dewan Rakyat who is elected as

representative of a political party to the Dewan Rakyat is
constitutionally obliged to resign as a Member of
Parliament of the Constituency of which he is elected if
he decides not to continue to be a member of the party,
but he shall be entitled to stand again and seek a new
mandate.

(iv) The right of any elected Member to vote on any matter in

the Dewan Rakyat will be subject to a disqualification if
there is a conflict of interest.
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(v) An elected Member of the Dewan Rakyat will be

disqualified if he is found to have committed an act of
political corruption by the Constitutional Court.

(vi) No Member of the Dewan Rakyat shall accept a position

in any of the GLCs. Directorship in a GLC will be a
disqualification of a candidate to stand for election or a
Member of the Dewan Rakyat.

(vii) The Society’s Act 1966 be amended to exclude political

parties from the jurisdiction of the Registrar of Societies.
This is to ensure that the Minister of Home Affairs or the
Registrar of Societies will not be exercising any of the
powers in the Societies Act in respect of political parties.
A separate legislation should be enacted for the purpose
of registering political parties to maintain their
independence from interference by an incumbent
political party in power. The registration of political
parties will be right under the Constitution and registered
with the Election Commission. The details of the
registration and administration will be recommended by
the Election Commission.

(viii) The Constitution does not envisage a hung parliament

and there is no constitutional procedure to deal with the
difficulties of a hung parliament. Therefore, there is a
need for constitutional amendment to take into account
the possibility of a hung parliament. We need to amend
the Constitution to provide for the Dewan Rakyat to give
priority to decide on the vote of confidence in the Prime
Minister appointed by the Agong. The Agong will be
constitutionally required to summon the Dewan Rakyat
to determine whether the Member of Parliament that he
has appointed as Prime Minister has the confidence of
the majority of the Members of Parliament or the Dewan
Rakyat.

(ix) The standing orders on moving the Dewan Rakyat to

consider matters of urgency of national interest at the
discretion of the Speaker needs to be amended. The
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past experience of the Dewan Rakyat has shown that

this discretion is not sufficient to satisfy the concerns and
anxiety of the nation on matters which are urgent and of
national concern. Therefore, it is proposed that the
Constitution or Standing Orders be amended to establish
a constitutional duty of the Speaker to table before the
Dewan Rakyat any matter of urgency and of national
importance requested by a minimum of 50 Members of
the Dewan Rakyat. The Speaker shall not exercise any
discretion in this circumstance. The matters of urgency
and national importance shall include any question of
confidence in the Prime Minister and the Members of the
Cabinet.

(x) The Constitution should be amended to explicitly provide

that the Dewan Rakyat and the status of the Speaker
shall be free, autonomous and free of any ministerial
control. It shall be the duty of the Speaker to ensure that
the Dewan Rakyat functions to safeguard and uphold
constitutional democracy and the Rule of Law.

(xi) Political donations from whatever source must be

declared to the Election Commission. The political party
shall state in its declaration:
(a) the name of the donor;
(b) the amount;
(c) the purpose;
(d) the name of the account and statements of account.
The GLCs shall be prohibited from making any
political contribution;
(e) If it is a corporation a resolution of the company
shall accompany the declaration.

(xii) The Official Secrets Act should be amended to remove

all sections that prevent transparency in the use of public
revenue and expenditure.

(xiii) Any decision of the courts that compromise the freedom

of speech and expression including statements of claim
which included statements which included claims of
damages in the statement of claim will be prohibited as
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it is open to abuse and in conflict with Article 10 of the

Constitution. Political Parties and/or politicians cannot
have interest directly or indirectly in the electronic or
print media.

(xiv) There is an urgent need for Economic Reform to off-set

the consequences of the health crisis. In particular on
the problems of unemployment and food security.

We must set up a Truth Commission, a body comprising

of competent people with experience and
unquestionable repute and integrity, to examine the role
of Bank Negara and to review the Official Secrets Act,
the Sedition Act, and to do away with nominees, proxies
and trusts for politicians under the Companies Act and to
review the funds and investment agencies like EPF,
KWAN, KWAP and SOCSO and to look into government
expenditure and businesses and its effect on the nation
and its people this past 40 years.

(xv) We need to urgently reconsider our health policies. In

the past we had overemphasized the private initiative.
This needs to be revised. Health is a National
responsibility and governments on behalf of the people
have a responsibility for public good.

(xvi) Since the earliest days of the pandemic, most

governments and Public Health experts have focused on
one collective goal for bringing it to an end: achieving
Herd Immunity by vaccination.

The Public Health experts sold us this concept that once

60% to 70% of the population are vaccinated against
COVID-19, the virus would go away and the pandemic
would end. Later, that number became 80%.

But now, these same Public Health Experts have given

up on Herd Immunity. They tell us it is impossible to
achieve. We must accept Covid as Endemic.
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So, what does this mean and how should we move

forward?

The solution offered by our Health Minister is to

vaccinate everyone in the country.

And to achieve this, we are following the example of

some western democracies who are imposing Vaccine
Mandates, and are excluding the unvaccinated from
participating in society.

But is this the best way forward?

Recent data have showed us that this virus continues to

spread despite high vaccination rates, and that the fully
vaccinated are just as likely to spread the disease as the
unvaccinated.

Gibraltar is one such example. The tiny nation became

one of the world's first 'Fully vaccinated’ countries in
May. Yet, in August, it saw a 2500% spike in Covid
cases, which prompted new lockdowns. Lately, they are
going through another covid wave, 2 weeks after they
started their Booster campaign. Just like Israel.

Similarly, Belgium, Ireland, Denmark, England, (all highly

vaccinated countries) are seeing another wave of covid
cases. Some of these countries have started giving
Booster shots, while some are reimposing covid
restrictions measures.

Is it wise to follow the same policy? Should we not learn

from those who have been successful in taming the
pandemic instead?

14. India, Japan and Sweden have managed to contain their

covid outbreaks, and the pandemic is no longer a
menace. The number of covid deaths have also
remained low these last few months.

So, what have they done differently?

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Well, all those countries did not follow the mantra of 'stay
home until you can't breath'. They focused on giving
treatment to those infected by the virus as early as
possible.

In India, some of the local governments distributed

pharmacy packs to their residents, which contained a
mixture of vitamins and various inexpensive medicine.
Central to these treatment therapeutics was, 'the drug we
are not allowed to name' !

Covid patients in those countries who were isolating at

home also had essy access to primary case physicians.
Unlike in Malaysia, those countries did not ban 'the drug
we cannot name', and it remained a main component of
their early treatment regimen. Doctors can treat patients
as they see fit, they didn't have to wait for the completion
of clinical trials to prescribe repurposed medicine that
works.

(15) In Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, where the covid wave was
contained by July, the vaccination rate in their adult
population was less than 20%. Hospitalisation and daily
deaths from covid remained negligible to this day, almost
zero percent.

When covid wave swept through Japan, their

government had already halted their mass vaccination
campaign due to vaccine safety concerns. Yet, they
were able to contain the outbreak quite quickly. South
Africa too, was able to contain the spike in covid
infections when vaccination rate was less than 20% of
their adult population. Both countries had a low death
rate. They too, used the 'drug we cannot name', as part
of their early treatment regimen.

The success of Sweden is perhaps most surprising.

Sweden embraced the idea of focused protection of the
vulnerable, while keeping schools and the economy
open. They had zero covid death among 1.8 million kids
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age 1-15 throughout the spring wave of 2020. The

Swedish Health Minister shared in an interview that he
based his policy decision on following good science,
which is: this corona virus does not pose a serious threat
to healthy individuals below the age of 60. Till this day,
covid cases and deaths remained low. While many
European countries have been hit by another covid
wave, Sweden is still doing fine. Incidentally, their total
number of deaths from all causes in year 2020, was one
of the lowest in 10 years.

A big difference in Malaysia is that, most of our people

do not know who to call, what they should do, and how
they can reduce their risk of developing severe covid if
they tested positive. They are just told to isolate and
hope for the best.

I sincerely hope that this will change.

So, are we on the right track to end this pandemic?

(16) We now know that fully vaccinated people can, and

are now driving the current wave of infection in many
countries, including Malaysia. So, are we looking at an
endless cycle of booster and vaccination in the coming
moths?

Time will tell. In the meantime, countries where their

people have a high natural immunity (seroprevalence),
like India, Nepal, South Africa , covid is no longer a
pressing national concern.

Mounting evidence indicates that natural immunity is

stronger and longer lasting than vaccine-induced
protection. However, both the vaccine and natural
immunity provide excellent protection against death.

While everyone can get infected, there is a huge

difference in mortality between the very old and the very
young. For children, the risks are lower than influeza.
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As with any drug or vaccine, there are always a risk of

serious injury to some tiny minority. And we can't know
for certain who these people might be until they have
taken the shot.

Hence, is there sufficient justification to force those who

already have natural immunity to take a vaccine that they
don't really need? And does it make sense to spend our
taxpayer's money to vaccinate these people who have
very lower risk of severe illness or death from this
infection anyway.

(17) The most vaccinated continent is also the only one

currently experiencing a rising wave of covid mortality.

Cases in Ireland are up 275% in the past month even

with vaccine passports and 94% of everyone over 18 at
least partially vaccinated.

Three weeks after The Atlantic published an article about

how masks and vaccine passports were helping
Germany “beat COVID” cases are the highest they’ve
ever been and up 6,300% since early July.

Belgium: 87% of all adults fully vaccinated, vaccine

passports and a mask mandate in place, yet cases are
up 504% since vaccine passports started.

We Malaysians have been most disciplined and resilient

in facing this crisis. We have been through this traumatic
and chaotic experiences. And we still have hope for the
future. We dreamt that we will develop into an ASIAN
TIGER. We dreamt that we’ll be a HARMONIOUS
MULTI RACIAL COUNTRY and a LEADING SPORTING
NATION. We were A ROLE MODEL OF A MAJORITY
MUSLIM COUNTRY and was a very RELIGIOUSLY
TOLERANT COUNTRY. We were a country with LOW
LEVEL OF CORRUPTION. We were a country with a
PREFERRED INVESTMENT DESTINATION. What has
happened to us? We not only have faced a health crisis
but also an economic crisis. A crisis of leadership due to
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a failed political system. We in fact have a crisis of

confidence – a leadership crisis beyond any imaginable
proportion. We have hopes and dreams of the future and
we have to take the right and proper action to achieve
our dreams because in this we cannot fail.