Nazri to AG: Set guidelines for caretaker government

"I think as we move on, there will be a need for this. We ask that the AG's Chambers determine the things that can and cannot be done by a caretaker government," Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said in a Bernama report.

The minister's response came after a Astro Awani report on legal experts calling for legislation, or at the very least a guideline, to outline the role of caretake government.

A caretaker government is the government that rules temporarily between the time when Parliament, or state assemblies, dissolve until a new government is formed.

Nazri said this after the signing of a new agreement between the Malaysian government and Asian-African Legal Consultative Organisation (AALCO), here, today.

Mohamed Nazri also said a caretaker government could only continue with the commitments made before the state assembly was dissolved and could not make new commitments.

"Between the date of dissolution and the formation of a new goverment, this caretaker government will be caretaking, but you cannot make new announcements or commitments," he added.

In the Astro Awani report yesterday, Professor Emeritus Datuk Shad Saleem Faruqi said that it was better to put in place "codified rules", which are "always better than purely informal ones”.

However, he reminded that rules is useless without political ethics.

“We should have clear cut codes, yes...And good law must always have certainty, predictability, accessibly, (but) law rests on internalisation of the rules. If that does not take place, then the black letter of the law would not achieve any purpose.”

Legally, the Federal Constitution and state constitutions, are both silent on this issue.

Malaysia relies on the English convention where the incumbent government continues in power in a caretaker capacity, until a new government is appointed by the head of the state.

In September last year, the Election Commission (EC) said that a draft for a code of conduct for a caretaker government, based on studies on other Commonwealth contries, was ready.

However, the EC said the draft needs to be further deliberated by the Federal and state governments and it is not known if it could be used for the coming election.

The code of conduct is one of the 22 recommendations made by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Electoral Reforms to improve the electoral process in the country.