Harapan reps to meet speaker over limited Dewan Rakyat sitting

The Pakatan Harapan presidential council said they will be sending representatives to meet with Dewan Rakyat Speaker Mohamad Ariff Mohd Yusof to register their protest against the one-day Parliament sitting on May 18 which has barred questions from MPs.

“The presidential council would like to remind that the Parliament’s function is as a pillar of democracy, specifically as an institution of check and balance on the government.

“Hence, Harapan strongly protests the question-and-answer session during the sitting being disallowed as informed by the Dewan Rakyat secretary.

“The presidential council also protests against the limit of one day for the sitting because attention must be given to the debates and discussions on the government’s efforts to curb the Covid-19 pandemic," said the Harapan presidential council in a joint statement today.

It was signed by PKR president Anwar Ibrahim, Amanah president Mohamad Sabu and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.

They said that they do realise that a normal Dewan Rakyat sitting would not be possible under the movement control order (MCO) and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

However, they pointed to Parliaments in other countries such as in the UK, Canada and Singapore which have managed to change their rules to allow for their Parliament sittings to continue in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.

“We believe that the same efforts can be done for the Malaysian Parliament,” they said.

They then mooted the idea of limiting the number of MPs who attend so social distancing can be maintained without damaging the quorum or house rules.

Another suggestion was for the MPs to use online conferencing technology if they wanted to take part in the debates without physically being in the Dewan Rakyat.

The Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders can be amended for these purposes, they said.

DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang had previously urged the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government to explore the possibility of holding a “virtual” Parliament to discuss ways of dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak as well as its ramifications on the economy.

“We are in an extraordinary crisis which calls for extraordinary solutions," he had said.

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