Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (July 17): The Institutional Reforms Committee (IRC) will be briefing the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) on its recommendations this week, having submitted its fourth and final report to the CEP yesterday.

"The report contains recommendations pertaining to key institutions as well as reforms to laws that impinge upon fundamental liberties. These recommendations are what we consider to be necessary steps for the reforms that the country needs," the IRC said in a statement today.

Chaired by former Court of Appeal judge Datuk K C Vohrah, the five-member committee had examined several areas for reform, including parliament, elections, the judiciary, law officers and legal services, anti-corruption, as well as the police and immigration.

It had also looked into communications, media and information as well as human rights institutions and laws.

According to its statement, the IRC had made several immediate recommendations on matters which it considered to be urgent, most of which have been incorporated in the report.

Of the approximately 1,000 submissions, letters and emails from the public, it said many written submissions, though not directly connected with the scope of its study "raised issues which require attention".

"We are referring these to the relevant government agencies for their action," the committee said.

On top of that, several areas of national importance could not be sufficiently dealt with over the course of its study, and the committee recommended for further studies to be conducted on these issues.

"We thank everyone who took the time and trouble to make submissions to the committee and those who attended dialogue sessions with us," it said, adding that the written and oral submissions had given them vital information.

The IRC, which had been established on May 15, said it had also received "representations of a personal nature which we could not deal with as they are beyond the ambit of this committee".

Its members include Suhakam commissioner and former Court of Appeal Judge Datuk Mah Weng Kwai, National Patriots Association president Brig Gen (Rtd) Datuk Mohamed Arshad Rai, professor of law at University Malaya Emeritus Professor Datuk Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi and the National Human Rights Society president Datuk S Ambiga.

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