Nik Nazmi said that when he took charge of the ministry, work on the legislation had barely progressed, with the only concrete step being the appointment of a consultant.
“This is one of the tragedies of governance – we get expensive consultants who do a bad job,” he said at a conference organised by the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs.
Nik Nazmi said the consultants later claimed they needed to engage a legal firm with a former Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) draftsman to complete the bill.
“We had the whole government machinery with us, but we were going in circles and making certain people rich, right?
“We had to go through it again and again and again. And finally, it took the ministry’s own team with the AGC to complete the bulk of the work,” the Setiawangsa MP said.
While not outright opposing the use of consultants, Nik Nazmi said excessive reliance on them fostered the impression that the government did not need to think for itself.
He also said that consultations with NGOs, civil society groups and the public was challenging, particularly due to lobbying pressure from the business sector.
“From my two and a half years in government, I learned that you cannot make everyone happy, and you cannot make meaningless decisions just to satisfy one or two big corporations,” he said.
The Climate Change Bill was driven by Malaysia’s commitment under the Paris Agreement in 2015, which the country signed in April 2016 and ratified in November the same year.
The idea of introducing a climate change law was first raised in 2018 after Pakatan Harapan came to power, but the effort stalled amid political changes.
Two years ago, Nik Nazmi defended the slow pace of drafting, saying he did not want to rush the legislation after criticism from netizens over repeated delays.
In October, acting natural resources and environmental sustainability minister Johari Ghani said postponing the bill would ensure that all stakeholders fully understand the implications and requirements of the law before it is enforced.