Minister in the Prime Minister's Department responsible for parliamentary affairs Nazri Aziz dropped a bombshell last week. He took almost everyone by surprise when announcing the Cabinet decision on Sept 15 (while Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was away in the US) to establish a Parliament Department with a director-general at its helm.

The new department would manage "the affairs and administration of Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara members." It was meant to "enhance and improve the effectiveness of handling Parliament issues as well as its management." More importantly, Nazri said that the department would come under his purview.

Until now, according to Parliament's website, "the Head of the Parliamentary Department is also known as the Secretary of the Parliament of Malaysia cum Secretary of the Dewan Rakyat." He is assisted by the deputy secretary of parliament cum secretary of the Senate.

Nazri presented a picture of the two secretaries serving their respective chambers with no overlapping responsibilities. That is not true. Actuality, the existing Parliamentary Department is a single bureaucracy with a "head of administration" in the person of the secretary of parliament. It is disingenuous on the part of Nazri to conveniently twist this fact.