Making A Better Malaysia – A study on the way forward for Malaysian Democracy

A Research team led by Datuk Dr. Anis Yusal Yusoff, former Deputy Director General of the National Centre for Governance, Integrity and Anti-Corruption (GIACC) is examining the fundamentals of the governance structures of Malaysia’s democracy today, its relevance in the new order and alternative models to consider.

The six (6) month Study entitled Making A Better Malaysia (MABM) has, since its commencement on the first week of September 2020, organised three roundtable discussions attended by a diverse group of people made up of politicians, legislators, academicians, members of the private sector, regulators, civil society and members of the media across all age groups, gender and demographic.

Datuk Dr Anis Yusal, now Principal Fellow at the Institute of Ethnic Studies (KITA), UKM in a statement said that two questions put to him triggered him to start this Study and they were:

1. Based on events of the last 3 years, since GE14, is Malaysia a nation in crisis or are parts of the system in crisis needing reform? If so which parts?
2. Is democracy itself in crisis and is the Malaysian model still suitable?

From these two questions the team developed a series of questions that are deliberated by roundtable participants

Datuk Dr Anis Yusal is collaborating with Dato’ Sri Nazir Razak, the former banker who has just completed a stint as a Visiting Fellow at the Blavatnik School Government in Oxford University where he focused on nationhood recalibration, episodes of systemic failures and overhaul such as Indonesia post Asian Financial Crisis, Malaysia post May 13th and South Africa post-Apartheid.

“I have argued for some time that our system, substantially designed in 1970, is no longer fit for purpose, impacting social cohesion and economic well-being. Political events over the past 3 years has only reaffirmed this conviction. I am supporting Anis’s efforts to hear what others think and whether we should set up a deliberative platform like a National Consultative Council to reset the system, as we did back in 1970.” said Nazir.

MABM team is now on its second phase of engagement where it intends to interview legislators and public officials to understand their insights and wisdom on the research questions. They are also inviting and encouraging the public to submit all thoughts and proposals on the focus areas to email: [email protected]. For more information about the research initiative please go to www.mybetterfuture.org.

Datuk Dr. Anis Yusal said the key to this Study is how we implement the findings. “We are looking at the questions holistically and not in piecemeals, including areas that may have bearing on the credibility of democracy itself. This will not just be another poll or study. Our measure of success lies in how the recommendations support the people of Malaysia and strengthen pillars of our democracy, and become implementable.”