Immediate response by Liew Chin Tong in Penang on
Tuesday, 25th November 2008:
Select Committees should be formed
immediately
Parliamentary Select Committees should be
formed to facilitate bipartisan approach towards issues of grave
concerns to the nation while Committees of the last Parliament which
have not completed their tasks should be revived immediately.
I have asked the Prime Minister on whether Select Committees would be
formed in this Parliament and whether Committees of the previous term
which have yet to complete its tasks would be revived.
The reply by Minister in Prime Minister's Department Dato' Seri Mohamed
Nazri Abdul Aziz stated that the Government wishes to do so but "any
such decision needed detailed planning so that it can be conducted
smoothly."
Further, according to the Minister, the Government also intends to
revive the Committees of the last Parliament which have yet to complete
its duties.
There are at least three Committees of the last Parliament, namely, 1)
Committee on National Unity; 2) Committee on Integrity; and 3) Committee
on the Ethics of Members of Parliament while the Committee of Criminal
Procedure Act and Penal Code had completed its task in 2006.
As this Parliamentary session (year) is nearing its end, the Government
owes Members of Parliament and the wider public an answer the reason
behind the delay in the revival and formation of these Committees.
Parliamentary Committee is an integral part of any mature and
functioning parliament and a parliament without a committee system would
not function efficiently.
In order to improve the level of participation of MPs in policy
processes, all Ministries should be subjected to the scrutiny of
Parliamentary Committees.
Committee may be formed around policy subjects, for instance, a
Committee on Security may scrutinise the Ministries of Home and Defense,
while a Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade may scrutinise the
Ministries of Foreign Affairs and MITI.
Apart from reviving Committees of the past Parliament, I urge the
Government to form the first batch of new Select Committees on issues of
burning concerns of the nation, namely
1) Parliamentary Reforms;
2) Crime Prevention;
3) Citizenship in Sabah;
4) Education;
5) Competitiveness.
* Liew Chin Tong, DAP International Secretary & MP for
Bukit Bendera
http://dapmalaysia.org