In the first week of having a new prime minister, the Parliament appeared to have started on a 'worse' footing by changing its schedule to suit the convenience of a minister, claimed DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang today.

He said on Wednesday the Dewan Rakyat was adjourned at 5.15pm,15 minutes ahead of time during the government winding-up of the debate on the Eighth Malaysia Plan mid-term review.

He added that parliamentarians were made to understand that this was to accommodate newly appointed Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who wanted to be in Parliament the next day to personally reply on behalf of his office.

"This was unprecedented in the history of Parliament, where parliamentary business have to wait for any member of the government front-benches," he stressed in a statement.

'Indulging Rais'

To make matters worse, Lim said Abdullah did not turn up the next day and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Dr Rais Yatim stood in for him.

The opposition leader claimed that the premier was never scheduled to appear in Parliament to wind up the mid-term review debate, and the House was adjourned earlier not for Abdullah but Rais Yatim.

He said the minister did not want to inconvenience himself by rushing to Parliament for the last 15 minutes of the session and preferred to wait until the next day when he had to be in Parliament to also pilot the Penal Code Amendment Bill.

"This is the most unhealthy, undesirable and unprecedented parliamentary practice in five decades of history of the Parliament," said Lim, who was country's longest serving parliamentary opposition leader.

"Is this a sign of a new relationship between the Executive and Parliament? This is a shocking episode demonstrating the further degradation of the role and place of the legislature, despite the prime minister expressing support for parliamentary democracy and separation of powers," he added.

The DAP leader said at the end of the first week of the fifth prime minister, the question people are asking was whether things would change for the better, get worse or remain unchanged.

"The episode of Parliament having to adjourn earlier for the indulgence of Rais shows that things could get worse, when in other aspects, things appear to be brightening up - at least on the rhetoric against corruption," he added.

Lim also said that Abdullah's call in his maiden speech "that we must be open and be ready to accept criticism to ensure the culture of democracy thrives" was not reflected by the mainstream media.

He cited the debate in Parliament yesterday regarding the new anti-terror law as an example. He said the important issue was dismissed by one mainstream media in three paragraphs, all quoting Rais while the MPs' views on the matter were ignored.

'Unclean' ministers

On the new premier's clarion call against corruption, the DAP leader said in a statement yesterday that Abdullah cannot establish a 'clean' government by asking his ministers to spearhead the campaign, as their 'cleanliness' itself was debatable.

"What is the record of all these ministers for a clean and incorruptible administration in their respective ministries?

"Even more serious is the fact that several of the cabinet ministers had not only been the object of numerous corruption reports but also the subject of investigations by the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA)," he said.

He added that this is why Transparency International (TI) Malaysia National Integrity Award ceremony honoured posthumously Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman, Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tun Ismail Mohamed Ali for their integrity in their service to the nation.

Terming this as a national embarrassment, Lim said: "It was an admission and reminder that Tunku Abdul Rahman's 13-year premiership could produce two recipients from his cabinet for the award but not a single minister from the 22 years of Dr Mahathir Mohamad's premiership."

Returning to Abdullah's call on his ministers to weed out graft, the DAP chief said the public does not want to hear rhetoric but wants to see results.

"If the present cabinet ministers are to play their new role as the new examples of public integrity, then it is all the more important that Abdullah should make the bold beginning by requiring all ministers to declare their assets and submit themselves to public scrutiny," he added.

On Wednesday, Abdullah announced that he had directed ministers to set up a task force in their ministries to tighten procedures and reduce bureaucracy in order to battle corruption.