Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia rubbished claims that Parliament is just a “rubber stamp” for the government.

If it is a rubber stamp, there would not have “robust debates” which go into the wee hours, he said in an interview with The Star.

“When you use that word “rubber stamp”, it means that whatever the government wants, it gets. But how are you going to reconcile that with what happens in Parliament?

“With the robust debates, utterances of unparliamentary words, debates until 4am, can you say it’s a rubber stamp? To me, rubber stamp means there is no debate at all,” he said.

Opposition MPs accused Parliament of being a rubber stamp after crucial Bills are introduced at the last minute without prior notice and passed after only several hours of debate.

This includes the National Security Council Bill which was tabled in the last week of sitting for the 2015 session, and was passed by the lower house after six hours of debate.

The Bill is criticised for proposing sweeping powers to the prime minister, who in his capacity as the NSC chairperson can declare security zones where emergency-like regulations are in put in place, with parliamentary approval.

The Bill is to be debated by the Dewan Negara, which is controlled by government senators, before it can be passed to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to be gazetted as law.

Pandikar recognised that the Opposition argue that Parliament is a rubber stamp because they are now allowed time to debate crucial Bills.

However, he blames the Opposition MPs for wasting time and not observing decorum when allowed to speak.

“Most of the time, they argue and don’t observe decorum, don’t form a shadow cabinet whereby you pick certain MPs to speak on specific issues.

“In some Commonwealth countries, they have prime minister or ministerial question time. I’m sure Malaysian ministers are happy about it and if not more capable, are equally capable to handle this,” he said.

He added that parliamentary integrity can remain intact if MPs from both sides follow procedures.

“If the Government of the day understands the parliamentary procedures, it is not hard. Likewise, if the Opposition performs its duties, there is no problem,” he said.

"The Opposition must behave in a way that inspires the public’s confidence if they come into power. But in my opinion, they don’t behave like that."