Freedoms and integrity

IN the last couple of months pre and post GE14, I have exited quite a few WhatsApp (WA) chat groups as I could not take the exuberant responses of family members, friends and associates to links both fake and real, as well as the comments made on one another's comments.
In fact, it has been a pattern on WA that when I have had enough I do an honourable exit by saying my goodbyes and thank yous. Inside I am of course fuming at the oftentimes illogical, irrational, irresponsible, emotional responses. Where I have a duty to moderate, I try to do so in a guarded, studied way referring to history, tradition, convention and custom or just offering a commonsensical argument. My chat group members think I am domineering, controlling or just undemocratic.
What I have come to realise is that the notions of democracy and human rights have their sinister twists; the phenomenon of people power and rakyat freedoms very soon reveal their downside.
While it is fashionably expected of the new government to announce change and reform which is what they promised in the run-up to GE14, to promise to do so in the first one hundred days is a tall order indeed. The vow of transparency so honourably made means that a lot of vital information and decisions which are privy to Cabinet and other key bodies are now released into the public arena. This is often accompanied by the emotional, subjective reaction of ministers and top officials to cases being investigated. Is this indeed wisdom?
The 10-point election manifesto of Pakatan Harapan to be implemented in the first 100 days is laudable, but are they achievable? Really? The trouble with promising too much too soon is that it encourages hasty decisions and roundabout turns. There's nothing like taking time to prioritise and ponder, to discuss and deliberate, even to admit more time is necessary to introduce these important changes. With distinguished councils being set up and rakyat feedback being invited it seems like whirlwind democracy is at work after the tsunami of sorts. It seems like we are being blown on all sides by these great tornadoes of change.
No doubt there are numerous wrongs to right, many unnecessary policies, plans and projects to review or discard. But first things first. Priorities must be set right. The government must be in place with the full Cabinet appointed and its legal adviser, the attorney-general (AG) fairly secured. This is a matter of the greatest urgency requiring the most suitable choices.
If there is any hint of the nominee's lack of integrity, or if he or she has shown indiscretions in the past, or if his or her appointment implicates a conflict of interest, then there must be a reconsideration on the part of the prime minister and his advisers. It would not be wise to go against the thinking of the rakyat and the institutions they are obliged to uphold.
May I be so bold as to suggest that apart from constitutional stipulations regarding the AG's appointment for instance, the nominee must be a person of the highest credibility and integrity, being the nation's supreme legal adviser. There should not be any compromise in the government's decision, in fact it must be a scrupulously clean one.
The Association of Voices of Peace, Conscience and Reason urges the government led by the prime minister to consider the arguments set forth by the Rulers at the special meeting to be convened tomorrow. This is where consensus and not authority should rule when it involves the common good of all the institutions that make up Malaysia, including its civil society.
We urge our most supreme institutions to consider the appointment of Federal Court judge Tan Sri Zainun Ali who has an impeccable reputation as a person and as a judge of great integrity.
I end with the hope that the Pakatan Harapan government will truly honour its promise of bringing hope to the nation and the rakyat, especially in giving the population of women their rightful recognition. The real change would be not in terms of fulfilling the nebulous 30% participation but the more substantive one of appointing the most qualified women to key positions where they will contribute to Malaysia's integrity as a sovereign nation respected by all. We have a woman deputy prime minister. Let's add to that a woman attorney-general.
Datuk Halimah Mohd Said
President
Association of Voices of Peace, Conscience and Reason