The Federal Parliament had recently passed the proposed amendments to the Members of Parliament (Remuneration) Act 1980, i.e an across-the-board 10% increase in MP's and ministerial remuneration. The increase would temporarily relieve some of the financial woes faced by members of Parliament but does not constitute a long-term solution.

The entire exercise shows that the government lacks imagination. The government appears not to have a clue as to how to improve the general performance of Parliament and its honourable members.

The government has treated the remuneration issue as a bureaucratic exercise. It was proposed because the government intends to adjust the remuneration of elected politicians following the 10% hike in the past two years for the civil service.

While the intention of the government may be noble, such bureaucratic measure is not enough at a time of a crisis of an underperforming Parliament.

Mohd Nazri Aziz, the minister in the Prime Minister's Department in charge of parliamentary affairs, has rightly lamented the crisis. He said: "Compared to other Parliaments in countries of equal development as Malaysia, our quality of debate is still relatively low."

Not only is the quality of debate low, the entire concept of parliamentary democracy is distorted.

In this country, the people no longer expect their wakil rakyat to voice their aspiration and grievance in Parliament. Instead, they expect to see the presence of their wakil whenever there is a need. They expect their wakil to do all the leg work for them whenever they encounter problems.

But should the people be blamed? How do we expect the people to know what their MPs are doing in the Parliament when there is no direct telecast of parliamentary debates?

The lack of understanding of parliamentary democracy on the part of the rakyat should be blamed on the political system that the Barisan Nasional government has been perpetuating for close to five decades.

Financial incentives

Today, not only is the opposition suffering from a political system that neglects the rightful role of Parliament and places undue emphasis on the executive, BN backbenchers are suffering too. As the government has always used financial incentives to induce support, the people expect MPs to contribute financially whenever they are in need.

Such a situation has now ensnared the BN MPs, which is why they have complained the most about the inadequacy of this recent increase of parliamentary allowances (MPs' remuneration is called an 'allowance' while that of for the members of the administration is called a salary).

However, the call for a higher increment by some quarters misses the point. The present increment is a bureaucratic practice that is in line with the increment for the civil service. The people will surely ask why MPs should be given a higher increment. What is the basis for a 20%, 30% or 40% hike?

It is better to focus on calling for a major overhaul of Parliament and the facilities and services provided to the MPs than merely asking for higher remuneration.

The negligence of Parliament is a serious issue. As an example, the Parliament is only provided with RM54 million in the 2005 Budget, which is only a tiny fragment compared to the Prime Minister's Department budget of RM1.922 billion. In other words, Parliament's allocation is only 1/35 of what the department gets.

Another telling example of the sorry state of affairs is the case of Parliament's application for 12 researchers to assist the MPs. It had to apply to the Public Service Department (PSD), which is under the purview of the prime minister. The latter recently approved an allocation for 10 of the 12 requested.

Parliament is supposed to be one of the three integral branches of the government, but today it looks more like a talk-shop without any real influence on policy processes.

In the past few decades, Parliament has been seriously neglected. It is important to remedy the defects sooner than later. Malaysia needs a new agenda for Parliament to herald a new era of parliamentary activism in charting Malaysia's future. We need parliamentary reforms to resolve the crisis of an underperforming Parliament.

Research assistants

In order to make Parliament a relevant entity, firstly, it should have its own separate and independent administrative structure, jointly led by the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat and the President of Dewan Negara with the participation of both sides of the political divide from both Houses.

Second, the MPs should be equipped with research assistants and political assistants. The government should at least provide two political assistants and a qualified research assistant to assist MPs so that they can carry outtheir duties effectively.

It is odd that MPs are provided with driver's allowance but not for researcher. The main task of a MP is not to be driven around to kenduri and ceremonies, their core business is to make laws in the Parliament, which requires a lot of research inputs.

Take the example of the Congress of the Philippines. Each congressperson is paid a block sum of USD$3,900 per month that includes his salary, communication and transportation allowance. In addition, each member is provided with six or seven staff that the government pays for. Further, the member can also ask the speaker to provide an additional staff as legislative staff assistant.

We should be reminded that the Philippines have a much lower income level compared to ours. (Malaysia's per capita gross national income/product was US$3,880 in 2003, the Philippines' US$ 1,080.) If they can employ six assistants for a MP, why can't Malaysia afford at least three assistants for each MP?

Many other less prosperous countries, such as India and South Africa, have provided their MPs with assistants and researchers which explains why Nazri thinks that our quality of debate is poorer than other developing countries. Malaysia must catch up on this area rather than be left behind.

Third, MPs should be provided with an office both in Parliament and in their constituency. According to the Survey of Facilities and Services Available to Commonwealth Parliamentarians 2002-2003 carried out by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, most CPA member countries provided some form of secretariat service and office space for MPs.

Parking space

From the debate on the increase in remuneration, it is clear that the BN backbenchers were very unhappy about their lot. It is not difficult to comprehend the sentiment. Their friends or former classmates who are now KSU (secretary-general of a ministry) or director-general have huge offices in Putrajaya and are being chauffeured around in a Proton Perdana. Our backbenchers not only have no personal office in the Parliament House, sometimes they can't even find a parking space.

The Parliament House was built in 1962/3 when there were very few cars around. For a start, given that having a private car is almost a fact of life in Kuala Lumpur thanks to a poorly run public transport system, a multi-storey car park should be built to accommodate the increasing number of cars entering the House.

(According to Cheras MP Tan Kok Wai, who is also a member of the House Committee of the Parliament supposedly responsible for the maintenance of the House but had never met for more than a decade, the recent RM85-million facelift initially included the construction of a car park but the plan was shelved without any explanation.)

The government should also consider in the 9th Malaysia Plan to build auxiliary buildings in the vicinity of the House to provide personal offices for all MPs and senators to facilitate their works.

In terms of personnel, physical structure and resources available in the Parliament library should be increased ten-fold from the current set-up so that the Malaysian government can match the standard of first world Parliaments. In this regard, the parliamentary libraries of Australia, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States should be our benchmark.

The government should provide each MP with a constituency office. Where applicable, it can be set up at the offices of local authorities. Given that most local authorities receive federal grants, the government can make the provision of a constituency office to a local MP as part of the criteria for financial grant and support. In this way, government-sponsored constituency offices can be established without incurring any financial expenditure.

Such moves would also help bridge the gap between the local authority and the people as currently, most members of the public only identify themselves with their elected representatives but are rather alienated from their non-elected local councilors.

Hopefully, these initial steps towards a better parliament could be realized. Let's make our Parliament a first-world institution.

____________________________________________________________________ LIEW CHIN TONG is a researcher with a Kuala Lumpur-based think-tank. He graduates from the Australian National University, Canberra.