This updated People’s Agenda is a work in progress, not a finished document.
The goal is simple: to help shape public conversation ahead of the state elections, and the general election after that. The idea is to move the discourse away from the ethnic and religious rhetoric towards the issues that matter most to ordinary people. We want to eventually get the politicians and their parties to realise that this is what most voters are interested in.
The process started with updating what we want from the five main points in the original People’s Agenda, first launched ahead of the 2022 general election. We are going further now, adding sharper, more specific demands under each point.
Aliran’s executive committee recently updated the bullet points under each heading in the 2022 version. On 4 July 2026, members in Penang and the Klang Valley, plus others joining online, then added more ideas.
Aliran’s Penang members also joined in the discussions – ALIRAN
Now it is your turn. Read the draft, and tell us what’s missing or what should be changed. Drop your suggestions in the comments, and we’ll use them to refine the People’s Agenda ahead of the coming general election.
1. Uphold the dignity and quality of life of the people
Develop a more inclusive economy that creates jobs and empowers lower-income groups, including refugees, asylum seekers, stateless persons and migrant workers.
Provide support for the ageing population in terms of mobility, care and other needs.
Decentralise state and local governance across education, public transport, health, welfare and the maintenance of infrastructure and sewage. Share revenues with other levels of government.
Improve terms and conditions for gig workers.
Consider the role of science, research and AI in shaping future jobs. Reduce dependency on Big Tech companies and fund local research. Strengthen the domestic base for science, research and AI.
Raise the minimum wage to RM2,500 for everyone, and expand the living wage framework beyond government-linked companies (GLCs). Review the minimum wage annually to check it against the cost of living. Provide tax relief and automation incentives to employers to offset higher labour costs.
Ensure adequate public healthcare:
Establish an independent health services commission to manage the public healthcare sector.
Increase spending on public healthcare from 2% of GDP to 4% in light of the ageing population.
Raise the medical personnel-to-patient ratio and address the problem of overworked healthcare workers. Provide equitable opportunities for career progression and advanced specialist training for medical personnel.
Increase the number of hospitals and clinics in urban and rural areas, and improve physical infrastructure and facilities for both inpatients and outpatients in public hospitals.
Require GLC hospitals to provide subsidised care, and impose a moratorium on new private hospital licences.
Ensure the health minister holds more direct, regular consultation with those in the medical profession.
Provide affordable housing, accessible quality education and a social security net for the vulnerable:
Re-examine the intake of foreign students into public universities through commercial channels, where this comes at the expense of local students.
Increase government funding for public universities.
Re-examine low-cost housing strategies, improve the national database on housing needs and discourage developers from holding on to unsold low-cost housing.
Introduce progressive taxation in the property market to discourage speculation. Increase tax on rental income from more than one property and impose a surcharge on the purchase of multiple non-primary residence homes. Remove the bumiputra discount for top 20% income earners who already own at least one property.
Provide monthly financial assistance of at least RM300 for all those aged 65 and above who do not receive a government pension or have inadequate EPF savings.
Provide comprehensive childcare support: introduce RM200 a month for the first two years, establish childcare facilities at workplaces and extend paternity leave.
Protect the rights of all workers, including gig and contract workers, in both the formal and informal economy, to ensure employment security. Amend labour laws to remove barriers to unionisation.
Extend access to affordable healthcare, education and employment to stateless persons and refugees. Give refugee and stateless children access to public education.
2. Promote equitable, sustainable development and address the climate crisis
Ensure that development is sustainable and promotes economic justice, protecting economic sovereignty and reducing vulnerability to global forces.
Strengthen the global majority’s stance against imperial domination. Play a stronger role in alternative international systems, such as Brics, and in alternative currencies to the US dollar.
Guarantee independent assessments: environmental, social and transport (and mobility) impact assessments must be conducted by independent consultants appointed by an independent panel, whose fees should not be paid by the project proponent.
Promote renewable energy. Promote solar instead of nuclear energy.
Promote sustainable mobility:
Endorse the Manifesto Mobility Rakyat (people’s mobility manifesto) and demand a Sumbangan Mobility 88 (mobility contribution 88) proposal – an RM88 monthly transport credit for all adults, for all forms of transport – to progressively replace Budi95 and Budi Diesel (existing fuel subsidy schemes) which encourage fuel use.
Empower bus users with an app for objective feedback, using a review or rating system covering frequency, service time, safety, convenience, comfort, journey duration and cost. The system should rate the first-and-last-mile walkway, road crossings, shelter, shade and the various legs of a journey – including feeder services, multiple modes and routes, and total door-to-door duration – giving elected representatives, bus operators and NGOs objective feedback to act on.
Improve walkability and first-and-last mile connectivity, and weekend bus services. Demand that bus routes, including feeder routes, meet the following targets for frequency, service hours and first-and-last-mile distance:
Protect the environment, especially forests, hills, seas, rivers and water catchment areas.
Reduce food import dependency:
Each state should set aside land for farmers instead of adding to the property glut.
Provide cash incentives, tax breaks, technical support and assistance to encourage younger people to take up farming and livestock rearing.
Regularise the status of food producers instead of evicting them.
Cancel unsustainable mega-projects, review data centre developments, stop overdevelopment and build climate resilience against floods, water shortages and rising sea levels.
Discourage unoccupied and unsold high-end properties through sales tax and other levies, and raise local council taxes on such properties.
Introduce a progressive taxation system and wealth taxes on the richest.
3. Celebrate diversity and inclusivity
Acknowledge, respect and include age, gender, ethnic and religious diversity in planning, development, policymaking and implementation.
Ensure regular consultation with all relevant stakeholders during the policymaking process.
Ensure dignity of work for people with disabilities.
Stop all forms of discrimination on the grounds of gender, nationality, ethnicity, religion, age, ability and location.
Tackle ethnic polarisation, and replace quotas with policies based on need.
Recognise sport and music as ways of bringing people together.
Ensure the protection of minority religious rights.
Protect the rights of all Indigenous communities to their land and livelihoods.
Reform university admissions: publish transparent admissions criteria, introduce a single uniform pre-university admissions exam and give extra weighting to applicants from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
4. Save democracy and uphold the rule of law
Ensure that all legislation protects human rights, due process and basic freedoms.
Limit politicians’ pensions to a single pension.
Repeal oppressive laws, including the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma), the Sedition Act, the Universities and University Colleges Act, the Printing Presses and Publications Act, the Official Secrets Act, and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act.
Reform key institutions of governance to ensure checks and balances, and remove executive influence over key appointments.
Implement equal constituency development funds for all MPs and state assembly members, regardless of party affiliation.
Introduce a provision for private members’ bills at least once a week during parliamentary sittings.
Ensure that a bipartisan parliamentary select committee vets key appointments, including the public prosecutor, the director general of the Department of Environment, the chief secretary to the government and the auditor general.
Revamp the composition of the Judicial Appointments Commission to remove undue prime ministerial influence.
Restore local government and village elections; hold governments accountable at every level; expand gender-responsive participatory budgeting nationwide; and enhance community participation in decision-making and institutional reform.
Ratify the Convention against Torture and abolish the death penalty and all forms of torture.
Appoint an independent inspector of prisons and detention centres.
5. Fight corruption and cronyism
Reform the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC): make it truly independent and place it under direct parliamentary oversight.
Table the Political Financing Act during the first parliamentary session after the next general election. Update the caps on election spending. Provide online disclosure of political donations.
Ensure greater financial transparency over GLCs and state Chief Minister/Menteri Besar Incorporated entities.
Eliminate political appointments for top positions within GLCs.
Support the struggle to build a Malaysia based on Justice, Freedom, Solidarity:
The views expressed in Aliran's media statements and the NGO statements we have endorsed reflect Aliran's official stand. Views and opinions expressed in other pieces published here do not necessarily reflect Aliran's official position.
