Parliament a rubber stamp of the BN government?

Speech
by M.Kula Segaran Deputy Secretary- General DAP Malaysia and Perak DAP Secretary
at the "Roundtable Conference on Parliamentary Reform" in Ipoh
on 11th June 2002

Is Parliament a rubber stamp of the BN government? Do we need Parliamentary reform?

Parliament is the highest legislative body in this country. Parliament consists of 2 chambers. The upper chamber or what is known as the Senate. It consists of members appointed by the Yang DiPertuan Agung and 2 members each elected by the respective State Legislatively Assemblies. On the other hand, the lower house consists of Members of Parliament who are directly elected by the people.
In my personal experiences as a former MP(Teluk Intan), I would like to suggest the following that need to be addressed if Malaysian Parliament means to serve the people.

1) Ministers to be present in Parliament to answer on matters raised by MP'S

One of the most important practices of parliamentary proceedings is the practice and procedure of both Houses, which ensures that the action of the executive is subject to open criticism of Parliament. A Minister cannot hold office unless he is a member of the Senate or the Dewan Rakyat. In either house it is permissible for members to address questions to ministers with regard to the administration of their departments, and in both houses, motions may be made reflecting on the conduct of a particular minister or the government as a whole.

There was an instance when I had posed questions to the Deputy Minister of Environment on environmental issues-chemical oil spill on to the river in Ipoh, there was no appropriate reply from him in fact he avoided answering to matters raised by me. In fact the Deputy Minister retorted by me raising the oil spill matter, I am just embarrassing the government and he advised me to sort out this matter by speaking to him personally out side the house! I refused to listen to his advise, as this is a public issue and not a private matter! But, subsequently, the Minister concerned replied by way of letter on the matter raised.

But invariably, Ministers do not see the importance or being accountable to Parliament and they rarely attend and reply personally to answer questions posed by MP'S. Like in most of the commonwealth countries, Ministers must take the questions posed by MP'S seriously and not only answer them but follow up on the matters raised.

2) Reform on demarcation of electoral boundaries

Presently there are 193 elected MP's representing the 193 Parliamentary constituency in Malaysia. But invariably each of the constituencies has a very large difference of total voters. For example, the Ampang Jaya constituency, the total number of voters is 98,527 while the Ulu Rajang constituency, there are 16,018 voters. Despite the huge difference, a sole MP represents both seats. This form of voter disparity weighs very much in favor of rural voters who are traditional supporters of the ruling government. The government policy is to allow rural constituencies a smaller voter count as it is said these areas are generally large and inaccessible. But with modern forms of communications and transport the government assertion that the rural constituencies are large and inaccessible is ridiculous.

Thus, what is called gerrymandering is unfair way of winning the elections. The election commission needs to incorporate a general guideline whereby each Parliamentary constituency shall be as far as possible have no difference of more then 10% voters as compared to between one another constituency.

3) Reform of the Senate overdue .

The framers of the Federal Constitution had envisaged that all the senators would be elected in due time. According to Article 45(4) of the Federal Constitution "Parliament may by law- a)increase to 3 the numbers of members to be elected for each state b) provide that the numbers to be elected for each state shall be so elected by the direct vote of the electors of that state: c) decrease the number of appointed members or abolish the appointed members.
Unfortunately, the overdue direct election has yet to materialize. By having a fully elected senate like that of the US, more powers may be vested in it, especially the power of checking the work of the executive.

4) Absenteeism of MP'S in Parliament

When parliament starts its sittings, the attendance of MP'S just drops day by day of its sitting. The necessity and the importance for BN MP's to attend its sittings become irrelevant. The house MP's attendance is full only when the PM attends Parliament session or during the election year. The leader of House i.e. the Prime Minister is one of the frequent absentees of the house. It is suggested that a fixed calendar month date be allocated so that all MP'S can attend parliament sittings. If MP'S cannot fulfill elementary duties to attend parliament, their attendance should be made public.

5) Live telecast of proceedings

Proceedings of Parliamentary debate will be interesting and taken seriously if it is live telecast to the nation. This enables the public to scrutinize the quality of MP'S speech and MP'S who are inactive will meet the consequences at the election. But BN government is not agreeable to live telecast and only the PM can see the debate live in his office as he has direct tele-connection with Parliament.

6) 2/3 Majority in Parliament should be averted

Since 1957, the Barisan Government(BN) and its predecessor, the Alliance, have been enjoying an absolute majority of not less then 2/3 majority in the Dewan Rakyat. With this majority, the BN government has been able to amend the Federal Constitution (which requires a 2/3 majority) and passed bills without any form of hindrance. Very often, bills are presented to parliament and the bills get through parliament at its second reading without any changes. It is not uncommon for the BN MP'S to get briefing on these bills but this opportunity is denied to the opposition MP'S. As the passage of these bills are quick, many MP's have not done enough research and or get the necessary feedback from their constituency to give their inputs. Thus, the passage of bills in parliament is just a rudimentary job of the government. For Parliament to be treated as a place where people's issues can be ventilated seriously, the present 2/3 majority of the BN government must be checked.

Conclusion

Finally, Parliamentary reform will be definitely unachievable unless the people are willing to bring about a sea change to the political establishment by electing more opposition MP'S to Parliament. The BN 2/3 majority in Parliament need to be checked for any thing sensible is to take place in parliamentary reform.