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Instilling the culture of transparency and accountability to the people of Negeri Sembilan in the State Legislative Assembly Media Conference Statement - Post-State Assembly Meeting by Loke Siew Fook (Seremban, Friday): Since the first sitting of the 11th Negeri Sembilan State Legislative Assembly meeting on 5th May this year, DAP Negeri Sembilan has initiated a new culture of transparency and accountability to the people of Negeri Sembilan by announcing publicly the performance of their wakil rakyat in the State Legislative Assembly after each sitting. The indicators that we used to evaluate the performance of each State Assemblyman including ourselves are the number of questions asked (both oral and written), participation in debates of motions and adjournment speech. The first “report card” that we made public in last May which showed the lackadaisical attitude in Assembly’s participation of the BN Assemblymen had served its purpose very well. By going public of their participation in the Assembly, it had given tremendous pressures to the BN reps to buck up particularly those from the MCA and Gerakan. It is obvious that those “parasites” who have not uttered a single word during the last sitting were forced to “open their mouth” by submitting some oral questions this time. However, their “participations” are just in surface to counter our attacks but totally lack of substance. Most of them dare not even speak up or debate in any motion and continue to warm up their chairs as “yes-men” and take up their hands when the time of voting comes. This is obvious and proven in their record of participation as shown in the summary below: Report of participation of State Assemblymen at the Negeri Sembilan State Legislative Assembly sitting on 15 and 16 September 2004 DAP
BN
* Number of questions asked in the previous sitting in bracket ( ) Bills presented to Assemblymen less than 24 hours before it was passed The manner of the Bills presented by the state government to the Assembly and passed without any deliberation was most disappointing and irresponsible. In the second day of the sitting, three Bills were presented to the Assembly to be passed were as below:
1)
Syariah Criminal (Negeri Sembilan)
(Amendment) Enactment 2004 When these Bills were presented for First Reading, I stood up and raised the Standing Orders Rule XXIV-Bills which reads:
All the copies of the three Bills were only distributed on the desk of the Assemblymen on the first day of the sitting and given us less than 24 hours to digest all the contents of the Bills. I have argued that even though technically the Bills can be presented and passed but in practical terms it is impossible for any Assemblyman to debate the Bills thoroughly. Although this kind of situation is nothing unusual in Malaysian Parliament and other State Assemblies, we must not set a bad precedent in the Negeri Sembilan State Legislative Assembly except that the Barisan Nasional government expects their Assemblymen to vote for any Government Bills blindly. True enough, although the Bills concerned the Muslims particularly the Muslim Wills (Negeri Sembilan) Enactment 2004, none of the UMNO Assemblyman stood up to debate or give their views on the Bills. To send a signal of protest, both of us (Bahau Assemblyman Lim Fui Meng and I) abstained from voting of all the Bills. Although the Mentri Besar retorted my argument and said that he had no knowledge about the late notice and all Assemblymen knew about the Bills except me, the fact that the Speaker had signed a notice as of below confirmed my argument: According to Rule 5 of the Standing Orders, I certified that the Bills below:
in cases of urgency, that the suspension of the Standing Rule and Order relating to its publication in the case of a Bill as specified is in the public interest. No punishment when BN reps make mistakes in the House Another bad example in the Negeri Sembilan State Legislative Assembly was the unprofessional way the Gerakan State Executive Counselor (EXCO) for Housing and Local Government Dato’ Woo Ah Lek answered our questions. In answering the question of abandoned housing projects raised up by another State Assemblyman, the Mentri Besar told the House that there are currently 52 abandoned housing projects in Negeri Sembilan. In a supplementary question to my original question on low-cost housing, I asked the EXCO for Housing and Local Government whether it is true that in the past four months the number of abandoned housing projects in Negeri Sembilan has tripled from 16 projects to 52! This is because in the written answer to my question on abandoned housing projects in the May sitting, the EXCO had listed only 16 abandoned projects. The EXCO told the House that he had forgotten whether he has ever said such a figure and that figure maybe only reflects only one district. He further said that he was very sure that the current figure is 52 projects and that those figures are variable. I had with me the written answer given by the EXCO in May clearly stating the details of the 16 abandoned projects. Isn’t this is tantamount to misleading the House? I would not expect the State Government will pass a motion to refer Dato’ Woo Ah Lek to the Privileges Committee for misleading the House because it is very “normal” for BN frontbenchers to make mistakes whether in Parliament or State Assemblies. But when DAP National Chairman and MP for Bukit Gelugor Karpal Singh made a mistake in quoting the wrong Act in reminding the MPs to raise their right hand in the oath-taking ceremony in Parliament, he was penalized with a 6-month suspension from Parliament without pay! Isn’t this a downright double-standard? Both of us who are the only Opposition voices in the Negeri Sembilan State Legislative Assembly vowed to continue to play an active and aggressive “watchdog” role in the State Assembly to check on the Barisan Nasional government and to safeguard the interest of the people. (17/9/2004) * Loke Siew Fook, DAP Political Education Director and Negeri Sembilan State Legislative Assembly Opposition Leader and Assemblyman for Lobak |
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