MP SPEAKS | Shameful year for Parliament
MP SPEAKS | The year 2020 has proved to be a shameful year for the Parliament as it repeatedly put the clock of parliamentary scrutiny of the Executive back instead of going forwards like other Commonwealth Parliaments in parliamentary reforms.
Yesterday alone, there were four incidents which should make responsible and reform-minded parliamentarians hold their heads in shame.
There was firstly the alleged miscount in the division voting on Monday during the committee stage of the Budget 2021 debate, where Tasek Gelugor MP, Shabudin Yahaya, acting as teller for Block C, was alleged to have mistakenly marked Nazri Abdul Aziz (BN-Padang Rengas) as being in support when he was absent.
There was no miscount. Shabudin had simply disregarded the responsibility and trust vested on him as a teller in division voting in Parliament as provided in Standing Orders 47(1)...
MP SPEAKS | The year 2020 has proved to be a shameful year for the Parliament as it repeatedly put the clock of parliamentary scrutiny of the Executive back instead of going forwards like other Commonwealth Parliaments in parliamentary reforms.
Yesterday alone, there were four incidents which should make responsible and reform-minded parliamentarians hold their heads in shame.
There was firstly the alleged miscount in the division voting on Monday during the committee stage of the Budget 2021 debate, where Tasek Gelugor MP, Shabudin Yahaya, acting as teller for Block C, was alleged to have mistakenly marked Nazri Abdul Aziz (BN-Padang Rengas) as being in support when he was absent.
There was no miscount. Shabudin had simply disregarded the responsibility and trust vested on him as a teller in division voting in Parliament as provided in Standing Orders 47(1) which reads:
“When a division has been ordered, the Tellers shall ask each member separately how he desires to vote, and the Setiausaha shall enter on the Votes and Proceedings a record of each member’s vote and of the members who abstained from voting.”
If Shabudin had carried out his duties as a teller to “ask each member separately how he desire to vote”, he would not have marked Nazri as having voted in support, as Nazri was not in the House.
Shabudin was not truthful in his clarification to the House and he should be suspended as MP for his dishonesty to Parliament.
Secondly, Deputy Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Willie Mongin made an obscene gesture in the Dewan Rakyat, showing his middle finger to the opposition MPs, and he had subsequently compounded his unparliamentary conduct by dishonestly denying that he had shown an indecent gesture.
The video recording of the parliamentary proceeding is proof that Willie had shown the indecent gesture.
Willie should be suspended as deputy minister and MP for his unparliamentary conduct.
Thirdly, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Khairuddin Aman Razali, was guilty of unprecedented parliamentary irresponsibility when he did not personally reply in the debate on his ministry’s allocation in the Budget 2021 although he was in Parliament, but came into the Parliament chamber to vote when divisional voting was called on his ministry’s allocation.
This is kakistocracy at its worst – where the minister dared not face the MPs to answer criticisms about his ministry but only to vote.
Fourthly, the reply by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Takiyuddin Hassan that the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia’s (Suhakam) 2019 annual report will not be tabled for debate in Parliament this year, although history was made last year when for the first time in 19 years, the Suhakam annual report was debated in Parliament on Dec 5, 2019.
On Oct 27, 1977, when winding up a motion asking Parliament to ratify the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights 1966, I proposed the setting up of Suhakam. It has taken over two decades for Malaysia to set it up. Almost another two decades have to elapse before Suhakam’s annual report was debated in Parliament last December.
Now, we are back to square one and we have regressed to ignoring the Suhakam report as in the previous BN time.
In one fell swoop, Takiyuddin was rendered null and void the opening paragraph of the Suhakam chairperson Othman Hashim in his message for the 2019 Suhakam annual report, which states:
“The year 2019 was a special year for Suhakam, as Suhakam celebrated its 20th anniversary on Sept 9 and saw the debate of its annual report in Parliament for the first time, an important milestone for Suhakam.”
It was a “special year” for “an important milestone” but for one year only!
I urge Muhyiddin Yassin’s cabinet to reverse Takiyuddin’s decision and resolve that parliamentary debate of the Suhakam annual report should be held every year, and that Malaysia should be moving forwards and not backwards in the human rights struggle of mankind.
Parliament has a new speaker whose background had given hope that under his guidance and leadership, the Parliament will finally catch up with other Commonwealth Parliaments in ushering in parliamentary reforms and innovations, but this seems to be misplaced hopes and aspirations.
In the mid-90s, we led the world in conceptualising a Multimedia Super Corridor but more than two decades later, while other countries are forging ahead with virtual parliamentary proceedings, we can only find all sorts of excuses to explain why Malaysia cannot have a virtual Parliament.
Is our Parliament going forwards or backwards?
LIM KIT SIANG is the DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
