PN govt treading on democracy, says Anwar on International Day of Parliamentarism
In conjunction with the International Day of Parliamentarism (IDP) 2020 today, opposition chief Anwar Ibrahim urged the government to reconvene parliament as soon as possible.
He said the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government was lacking legitimacy and, as such, continued to tread on democracy by refusing to hold the Dewan Rakyat sitting.
"The legislative body, especially the institution of Parliament, is the...
In conjunction with the International Day of Parliamentarism (IDP) 2020 today, opposition chief Anwar Ibrahim urged the government to reconvene parliament as soon as possible.
He said the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government was lacking legitimacy and, as such, continued to tread on democracy by refusing to hold the Dewan Rakyat sitting.
"The legislative body, especially the institution of Parliament, is the most essential institution in the country. It is not only a place where new laws affecting the nation are constructed, but it also functions as a check-and-balance against the executive branch.
"This concept has been adopted in all democratic and semi-democratic countries in the world," Anwar (above) said.
He cited the United Nations website, which observed IDP 2020 on June 30, which stated that Parliament was especially important during times of war and conflict, and even more so during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a time quarantine and economic slowdown, it said that the parliamentary body was greatly needed to pass new laws, provide emergency funding, ensure accountability, and monitor the government's every step so that corruption can be curbed.
"However, what stands in stark contrast is the government of Malaysia, which not only lacks legitimacy but continues to tread on every aspect of democracy including repeated refusal to reconvene the sitting of the Parliament or Dewan Rakyat. This phenomenon does not happen in other developed countries, including our neighbour, Singapore," said Anwar in a Facebook post today.
The Dewan Rakyat had assembled for only one-day on May 18, the agenda of which included the opening ceremony by Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, and ended without any debate session.
Calls by the opposition for the Parliament session to be longer and held digitally were ignored by the PN government, which claimed the brief one-day physical sitting was a Covid-19 precaution.
The opposition has since accused Putrajaya of trying to block attempts to test the PN's fragile majority in the lower house.
"It is only right for us to continue to pressure the government of the day to reconvene Parliament as soon as possible and to hold the institution of Parliament as a pillar of democracy and rule of law," Anwar added.
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