It is indeed heartening to see the Parliament coming to life again after a long hiatus. The strong stand taken by some of the government backbenchers and opposition Members of Parliament (MPs) regarding the non-performance of S Samy Vellu and his Works Ministry indeed heralds the beginning of parliamentary democracy and accountability.

We should call a spade a spade and not by any other name. If a minister or a ministry has not performed up to the expectations of the rakyat or worse still, has been negligent in his and their duties, then it is only right that they should be taken to task in Parliament.

The MPs are elected by the rakyat and by virtue of that they must have the rakyat's best interests at heart. In Parliament, their foremost allegiance is to the rakyat who elected them, not to the political parties that they represent.

The rakyat and the taxpayers have a right to demand answers and explanations from the minister responsible concerning the shortcomings of their ministries through their duly elected MPs.

If their MPs don't raise these issues, who will? I think we should be congratulating the current crop of MPs who are more alert, vigilant and vocal in expressing their views and highlighting issues of national interest.

Sweeping things under the carpet or pretending that everything is alright by not discussing it will not improve the situation nor will it be in accord with the transparent and efficient government that our prime minister aspires to promote.
We want a first-class Parliament, not just in terms of the infrastructure (it has just benefited from a RM50 million renovation), but also in terms of a first-class performance and mentality from
our MPs.

The avenue for us to judge our MP's performance is from their qualitative contributions in Parliament. Constructive criticism should be encouraged, while non-performers should be shown the door.

I think the rakyat have a right to know the contents of the Works Minister's report to the prime minister, as the subject matter concerns public projects which affect their lives.

Whilst it is the prime minister's prerogative to hold his own views on the Works Minister, his views would surely take into consideration the views of the majority.

Continued protection of wrongdoings and wrongdoers would just make a mockery of the 'Cemerlang, Gemilang and Terbilang' motto.