How Parliamentarians Can (and Must) Help Press Freedom

Today is not World Press Freedom Day 2006. Yesterday was. Shall everyone now get back to business as usual and wait for the WPFD 2007, or heaven forbid until another media agency or journalist is persecuted – to reiterate our objection on Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 and our demand for a Freedom of Information Act?

In a way, that seems destined. Journalists and civil societies have been repeating such calls every year, and the opposition parties every election. You cannot have the PPPA repealed and FIA enacted unless you control a parliamentarian majority. Practically, that leaves us two possibilities: a change of the Government’s heart; or a change of government.

The good news we have learned from Dr Mahathir (like Tunku) is that former prime ministers see press freedom their darling after retirement. The bad news is even if PM Abdullah soon joins the club, his successor will continue to control the media like he does now. So, you cannot count on conversion of former prime ministers.

And you’d better not count on the Opposition. Not only because that they will likely again fail to break BN’s two third majority comes next election. Even if they win the power in 7 or 11 years’ time, you may be naïve to think press freedom would be amongst their first priorities. (They need not worry about printing permit for party organs then because the mainstream press would be on their side after election.) Am I too cynical? The Opposition’s call for local elections has been as long as their opposition against PPPA, have you seen any local election in Kelantan since 1990 or in Terengganu from 1999 to 2004?

A Three-step Road Map

A long journey needs more than a great destination. It needs road map and stopovers that we may count our progress. Expecting a sudden change of Government’s heart or that of government is like hoping for a charted helicopter, a luxury we simply don’t have. When a promise like “Special Commission on Police” spelled out specifically twice in 2004 manifesto cannot be kept, you’d better not expect vague sales talk like “your opinions and views continue to matter” will be translated into any meaningful reform.

The faithfuls in press freedom must therefore make a road map based on this realistic assumption: there will be no change of PM or ruling party. We may still possibly make change. Here is a three-step road map thought out by backward induction.

Step 3: Government/Private Member Bill

The step before any reform in media laws is to have the bills, which can be tabled by the government or individual members of parliament. All laws have been passed so far took the form of government bill but private member bills, allowed under the House’s Standing Order 49(1), are certainly not a waste of energy.

If it is scheduled for debate and votes, a private member bill forces parliamentarians from all parties to make a stand and leave a record. Even if it is killed off by filibuster, a tactic of exhausting the parliamentary session by deliberate long-winding speeches, a private member still can embarrass the political opponents. Haji Hadi Awang, then PAS MP, shrewdly demonstrated the usefulness of even a filibustered private member bill in October 1999 by proposing constitutional amendment to impose death sentence for Muslim apostates. By April 2000, BN’s Perlis state government has taken the cue to pass a law that sends anyone intending to leave the faith into rehabilitation camp for a year.

Step 2: Parliamentary Select Committee

The step immediately before is of course to have the bill drafted. The conventional way, as how we have got most of our draconian laws, is to have it prepared by the concerned minister/ministry, with the aid of Attorney-General's Department, then approved (with changes if necessary) by the Cabinet. Parliamentary debates normally change nothing of the content unless they are heated enough to force the Executive to withdraw the bill for amendments.

However, there are ready channels for more democratic and better quality legislations. In 2004, following the horrible deaths of two ten-years old girls in the hand of rapist, a seven-member Parliamentary Select Committee was formed and headed by the then Prime Minister's Department Datuk Radzi Sheikh Ahmad to collect views via public hearing in amending the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code.

Two other select committees have also been established to collect inputs and build consensus with a more general task, both headed by a minister. The one on National Unity and National Service, consisted of Datuk Maximus Ongkli and 11 other members set out to study necessary changes both in policies and laws related to the matter. The third select committee, also consisting of 12 members headed by Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, aims to discuss issues on values, ethics and integrity of the community based on the National Integrity Plan.

The merit of Select Committees is obvious. They invites public participation and builds consensus across parties (each have members from BA and DAP). The output can then be tabled as a Government Bill, rather than a private member bill, hence allowing the government to claim credit.

Step 1: Parliamentary Caucus

As desirable as can be, Select Committees are rare. The three above are the only three we have since 1970s. In that sense, the Abdullah Government must be given due credit. If Abdullah really cares to listen to the truth and fight grafts, with the media and the citizenry as the Government’s eyes and ears, he must reform the current media laws, not only the notorious PPPA, but also Communication and Multimedia Act, the Official Secret Act and other restrictive instruments. And the time has long been due for a Freedom of Information Act (FIA. If Abdullah is still serious about his reforms, Press Freedom must have the fourth Select Committee.

But the nation cannot wait forever until Cabinet makes the decision. Even two Royal Commissions cannot persuade the PM to establish the IPCMC promptly. We therefore need the concerned Parliamentarians to take another step: form a parliamentary caucus, an informal grouping of parliamentarians bonded by same policy interests. There are two caucuses so far, one on Human Rights and the other one on Democracy in Burma. Unlike select committee, caucus can have unlimited number of parliamentarians and hence could be even more representative. It can also be more permanent than a Select Committee, whose term is limited to the completion of its tasks. In other words, it could act as if an informal substitute of a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Media until we have one.

The Parliamentary Caucus can therefore be the drive to push for a Select Committee in the House (Path 1, chart above) and in its absence, carry out its roles where possible. (Path 2) It can hold regular meetings with journalists and civil society on the state of media freedom before and during every parliamentary session. It can invite the media community to help draft the amendment bill for PPPA or complete new law, which it may later present as Private Member Bill.

Consolidating Efforts

The road map is not something completely new. The Parliamentary Opposition Leader MP Lim Kit Siang (Ipoh Timur) has called for a parliamentary committee system including a Select Committee on Mass Media when thanking the Royal Address in May 20 2004. BN-UMNO MP Zaid Ibrahim (Kota Bahru) has expressed his wish this February to table a private member bill on Press Council. BA in its 2004 Manifesto has vowed to abolish PPPA and enact FIA. Many BN MPs have also expressed support for transparency and accountability. We should have no shortage of members for a Parliamentary Select Committee or Caucus on Freedoms of Information and Expression.

The civil society is doing its part in pushing for legal reform. The National Coalition on Freedom of Information Act is already drafting a Freedom of Information Act. I am sure groups like National Union of Journalists (NUJ), Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), Writers Alliance for Media Independence (WAMI), Charter2000-Aliran are certainly ready to give its input for a new press law which will be better received than a press council.

Such efforts of both the parliamentarians and civil societies need to be consolidated and synthesized. Nowhere will Malaysia move any closer to the end of Printing Permits and other menaces of PPPA, OSA and the like if Parliamentarians takes no initiative and imagination to link itself with the civil society’s impassioned line.

Yesterday, 37 civil society groups and 92 concerned citizens (journalists, activists and academics) endorsed the World Press Freedom Day’s Five-points Demand. The Deputy Minister of Internal Security, MP Foo Ah Kiow, is certainly wrong to dismiss it as a minority’s demand. (www.merdekareview.com, May 4) But he could not be more right to point out that while Select Committee needs the support of the House’s majority, the Caucus can start with as few as two concerned parliamentarians.

Will we then see something then before next World Press Freedom Day or next Election, Messrs/Madams Parliamentarian?

(Wong Chin Huat is the chair for Writer Alliance for Media Independence (WAMI). He currently reads politics at University of Essex, UK.)