PARLIAMENT A cabinet minister has urged parliamentarians to look at the controversial 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) and goods and services tax (GST) positively.

It is negative thinking for lawmakers to see 1MDB as having become a burden and should therefore be whacked, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Shahidan Kassim said.

"You not only stress yourself, you are stressing the people who listen and the rakyat, " Shahidan said during Question Time in Parliament today.

"Be positive in thinking. Think that 1MDB's report will be released soon," he urged, adding that they should be bona fide about the government.

Shahidan said this after responding on the government's measures to tackle the high work pressure faced by civil servants.

Shahidan cited a  research by the Public Services Department that showed more that 50 percent of the 3,470 officers in Prisons Department were highly stressed, while 37 percent of officers suffered from mild high blood pressure.

Shahidan, the minister who oversees parliamentary affairs, shot down a call for the number of days of the Dewan Rakyat sittings to be extended.

"The government holds the stand that the the number of meeting days in the Dewan Rakyat is adequate to debate the relevant issues," he said in a parliamentary written reply dated May 24.

Shahidan said this in response to Kamarudin Jaffar (PAS-Tumpat, photo ), who asked if Parliament intended to increase its sitting days or to re-establish the parliamentary select committee.

The call came amid the backlash from the opposition lawmakers, and protests from the people as well, following Parliament passing controversial bills in the wee hours of the mornings during the last parliamentary session.

The Sedition (Amendment) Bill 2015 and the Prevention of Terrorism Bill 2015 were among the bills passed at the last session of Parliament, during the final week of sitting when the House extended the meeting hours on three occasions, and up to as late as 4.20am.

The opposition lawmakers had, at that time, urged the government to postpone the bills to next sitting, but their calls were ignored.

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