Members of Parliament received a circular from the Dewan Rakyat secretary yesterday.
We were informed that the next Dewan Rakyat sitting on 18 May 2020 will only be for one day. Furthermore, MPs are not allowed to submit any questions to the government or table any resolutions to debate.
Such decision is contrary to the good practices of democracy. In effect, it means that the new government will not be subject to any formal scrutiny.
I had planned to raised several critical issues in the upcoming parliament session, such as on the problems of Bantuan Prihatin Nasional (BPN), procurement of PPE for hospitals, and the allocation of food aid.
These are questions raised daily by my constituents, but they will now remain unanswered.
I understand that there are concerns because of the Covid-19 situation and the Movement Control Order (MCO). Public health should indeed remain as the priority.
However, the government should not have taken the easy way out. For one, it is premature to decide now if parliament should convene for only one day because the MCO could be lifted before that.
More importantly, parliament and the government should be more proactive in exploring other ways to remain functional. Some possibilities include:
1. Online sittings
Parliament should explore the use of technology to convene online parliamentary sittings. If this is not possible at the Dewan Rakyat level, it should at least be implemented for the Special Chambers (Kamar Khas) or Select Committee meetings.
This may require some regulatory changes or resolutions to be passed. All of these could be done on the first day of the sitting.
2. Written answers for questions
Under the Standing Order, MPs are entitled to submit 10 questions for oral reply and 5 questions for written reply. The decision to disallow questions is utterly unacceptable.
Instead, MPs should be allowed to submit the questions and the Ministers could reply with written answers. This would involve “zero contact” and we would at least have some answers on important issues.
3. Tabling of reports
MPs would usually receive various statutory reports throughout a parliamentary session, such as the Auditor General’s report.
Such documents should still be sent to MPs, and it could easily be done by uploading it onto the parliament’s website. The government could also issue special reports or white papers on the Covid-19 situation or the economic stimulus package.
As we can see, these suggestions are nothing extraordinary. The government can easily implement them if it has the will to do so. The underlying interest is to enable transparency, check and balance, and accountability.
On the contrary, the decision to only convene parliament for one day shows that this new government prefers to remain in their own bubble and avoid public scrutiny at all cost. After all, the Prime Minister has admitted that his government is “not the government you voted for”.