The opening of the Perak State Legislative Assembly will due officiated by His Royal Highness the Sultan of Perak on 6th August 2018 after the 14th General Election. It will continue to sit on 7, 8, 9 & 13th of August 2018.
The coming sitting of the Perak State Legislative Assembly will see the following changes and improvements.
- An increase of 50 % the time allocated for the Opposition Leader and members of the State Legislative to debate and the time allocated for questions and answers.
- The official recognition of the post of the Opposition Leader
- Media will be granted direct access and live telecast of the State Legislative proceedings will be allowed.
- Entrance to the State Legislative Assembly will be guarded by the State Legislative own security personnel and not by the Royal Malaysia Police.
The time allocated for the Opposition Leader to debate has been increased from 40 minutes to an hour, from 20 minutes to 30 minutes for the other Legislative members and the time allocated for Questions and Answers has been increased from an hour to 1 ½ hours.
I would like to put on record my appreciation to the new State Government for granting my request to officially recognize the post of the Opposition Leader. The Opposition Leader will now be provided with the facilities of an office, an official car, 2 officials, a driver and an additional monthly allowance.
In a democratic system, the opposition members are not to be treated like enemies but are to be respected for their roles they play in a democratic system. I am elated with this reform which I have championed for since 2004 when I was first elected to represent the state seat of Sitiawan has come to fruition. The Opposition
Leader post was officially recognised in 2008 when the Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Alliance) was in power in Perak but it was short lived when the Barisan National (National Font) undemocratically grabbed power from Pakatan Rakyat on 6/2/2009.
The media will be given full freedom to cover the proceedings. I call on the media to reciprocate by cooperating with the secretariat of the State Legislative Assembly so that all the media agencies will be given equal opportunity to cover the proceedings.
This change is needed so that it will not the perceived that the State Legislative Assembly is guarded and controlled by the police force which is an agency of under the Executive arm of the government. We do not want to see the repeat of the incident on 7th May 2009 when the police force entered the Perak State Legislative Assembly, took control of it and forcibly removed the Speaker from the Perak State Legislative Assembly. It was a dark spot in the history of the Perak State Legislative Assembly and it should never have happened.
I call on the elected representatives from both side of the divide and the Government to play their respective roles and duties in this coming sitting of the State Legislative Assembly.