Peace, justice and strong institutions

IT is encouraging that so many universities and other institutions in Malaysia are adopting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), embedding them into policy and wider objectives.

Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions come under the ambit Goal 16, and as Malaysians, we should be cognisant of how these concepts are inherent in our own foundation too. As I’ve often argued, we can find in our pre-colonial past the nuggets of rule of law, checks and balances, and the explicit pursuit of peace and justice.

In 1957 and 1963, our first prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj proclaimed that the Federation of Malaya and Malaysia respectively “with God’s blessing shall be forever a sovereign democratic and independent state founded upon the principles of liberty and justice and ever seeking the welfare and happiness of its people and the maintenance of a just peace among all nations.”

Our Rukun Negara refers to “more perfect unity” within our society, “a democratic way of life”, and “a just society” before declaring the principles of Rule of Law and Supremacy of the Constitution.

It is our Federal Constitution that establishes, defines and regulates the institutions that are supposed to achieve and uphold these principles, and it was clearly the intention of the writers of our Constitution that they must be strong to effectively fulfil their functions.

Thus, we are lucky because our historical narrative and even the 12th Malaysia Plan are adaptable to the SDGs. This is particularly important when there are extremists who want to ignore global cooperation and look ever inwards into defending only their own race or religion. The best antidote is proving that cooperation and inclusion leads to better results for everyone.

There is a huge amount of work to be done within the three themes of peace, justice and strong institutions, to take one example each: protecting children from abuse, exploitation, trafficking and violence; promoting and enforcing non-discriminatory laws and policies; and substantially reducing corruption and bribery.

For these alone, there is a huge amount of research and advocacy still to do, best practices to be sought out and the experience from other countries needed to formulate data-driven solutions. And indeed, while other countries will have their own narratives and definitions – for example, peace without freedom; justice defined by a narrow few; or strong institutions as synonymous with totalitarianism – we should be steadfast in being guided by own principles to show the world that our definitions can work.

In Malaysia, civil society has been pursuing institutional reforms to improve our democracy and governance. The Political Funding Bill was stymied by the dissolution of Parliament, but the next government must continue efforts to ensure that political parties and politicians, as well as donors, are transparent about donations.

Furthermore, ways to reduce dependence on corporate patronage – including state funding of political parties based on the share of their candidates’ votes – can also be considered.

The anti-hopping law – Constitutional (Amendment) Bill 2022 – now makes elected representatives think hard about the consequences of abandoning the platform upon which they were elected, and should make governments more stable. In lowering the voting age to 18 and introducing automatic voter registration, the democratic legitimacy of the upcoming general election will now be increased.

Other reforms being pursued are term limits for the Prime Minister and separating the roles of the Attorney General as chief legal adviser to the government and public prosecutor. Many of these reforms apply at the state level as well, and in the Malaysian context, decentralisation itself is a key part of achieving SDG 16.

Of course, the independence of the judiciary remains vital, which is why the appointments of judges needs to be free from political influence, while the rakyat should be fair in assessing their judgments which might not go a certain way: sometimes the problem lies in technicalities or badly worded legislation.

And, of course, we have our final check and balance institution in the monarchy, which was particularly visible in encouraging stability during the recent period of political uncertainty amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Indeed, within our constitutional system, all institutions need to take heed of what the Constitution asks them to do, but civic literacy is vitally important too. The rakyat must know why our institutions exist and what their functions are. And if they don’t fulfil their functions, then freedom of expression must enable them to continually seek improvements.

The next generation of citizens have already had critical years distorted by an unprecedented pandemic. But I’m confident that the inculcation of strong principles, guided by the wisdom of our constitutional framers, and international cooperation will see them through the future.

Adapted from the writer’s speech at the launch of the Impact Lab on Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions at Taylor’s University on Nov 2, 2022. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.