DAP proposes a grassroots  campaign in all the 193 parliamentary constituencies  to demand for parliamentary reform  if Parliament does not allow MPs from both Barisan Nasional and Barisan Alternative ample time to debate the people’s concerns

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Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang 

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The Malaysian Parliament has scored several "firsts", which do not redound to its  credit or  honour such as:
 

• the unconstitutional convening of the first meeting of the tenth Parliament;
• the undemocratic and unparliamentary practice of disallowing amendments to be made to motions without notice as clearly allowed under the Standing Orders; and now,
• the refusal to allow MPs, both from government and opposition, ample opportunity and time to speak up in Parliament on the people’s concerns and the national problems.

Before the Dewan Rakyat adjourned on Thursday after a three-day debate on the motion of thanks on the royal address, Deputy Speaker, Datuk Lim Si Cheng announced that there was  one more day left for debate by the backbenchers before the Ministers would take the floor for the last two days to reply.  Si Cheng  said there  were 40 more MPs who had indicated their interest to take part in the Royal Address debate.

I do not think Si Cheng was right when he said there were  40 more MPs who had indicated their interest to take part in the Royal Address debate, as he must be referring only to the Barisan Nasional MPs without taking into account another 40 Opposition MPs who also want to take part in the debate - putting the total at around 80 MPs waiting to have their chance to speak in the first policy debate in the new Parliament.

Apart from 66 elected MPs who are Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries, there are a total of 127 backbenchers from both Barisan Nasional and the Opposition ( 82 Barisan Nasional, 42 Barisan Alternative and 3 PBS) in Parliament.

So far only 11 MPs had spoken in the debate, seven from the Barisan Nasional and four from Barisan Alternative.  I will be surprised if out of 75 Barisan Nasional MPs who had not yet spoke, there aren’t some 40 of them who would want to speak.  Out of the 41 Opposition MPs who had not yet spoken, easily some 40 would also want to speak.

The question is whether Parliament could accommodate some 80 backbenchers before Ministers start winding up for the last two days reserved for them?

The Speaker had already imposed a 20-minute time limit for each MP in the Royal Address debate.  It would be ridiculous to shorten this time limit any further.

If Monday is the last day of the Royal Address debate for backbenchers, this would mean that there would only be time for 15 MPs in the remaining five hours of debate - denying some 65 MPs from both the Barisan Nasional and Barisan Alternative the right to speak.

This is clearly unfair, undemocratic and unacceptable.  Alloting six days for the Royal Address debate this time is ridiculous when  more than eight days were given to the Royal Address debate in April last year. In fact, as the first policy debate in the newly-elected Parliament, there is a strong and powerful argument as to why the Royal Address debate should be extended by another three days to allow another 45 MPs the opportunity and the right  to discharge their most elementary parliamentary duty of speaking up in Parliament.

The tenth Parliament and the new batch of MPs would be committing a gross dereliction of duty if in the first policy debate of the new Parliament, important issues are not raised or debated, such as:
 

• the dirtiest election in the nation’s history in the recent general election.
• the failure of the Election Commission to discharge its constitutional mandate to conduct a free, fair and clean general election especially in the disenfranchisement of 680,000 new voters.
• the deepening national crisis in Malaysia, whether over the political legitimacy of the ruling government, the independence of the judiciary, the professionalism and integrity of important organs of government like the office of the Attorney-General,  Police, the Anti-Corruption Agency, the Auditor-General, etc.
• the losing battle against corruption in Malaysia and government accountability on the catalogue of outstanding corruption reports and investigations, both involving Cabinet Ministers and powerful movers-and-shakers in the country.
• The latest corruption expose - the RM10.6 million Mitsui kickback to Telekom Malaysia.
• Malaysia’s proper stand on globalisation.
• Double IT failure in Malaysia -  failure to promote a "IT For All" campaign and the failure of getting the government departments to set a good example of IT mind-set and literacy.
• Parliamentary reforms.
• Education, housing and healthcare crisis in Malaysia.
• The continuing human and soci-economic costs of the Nipah virus epidemic.
• The socio-economic tragedy of the ill-planned repeal of the Rent Control Act.

With the three-day extension of the debate on the Royal Address debate, the 2000 Budget debate which is scheduled to begin on Monday 28th February can be deferred to Wednesday March 1, 2000, although the 2000 Budget could still be tabled in Parliament by the Finance Minister, Tun Daim Zainuddin on Friday, 25th  February 2000 without any change of plan.

The tenth Parliament will be a great disappointment to all Malaysians if it starts off by showing itself as the highest political and legislative chamber in the land only in name but not in substance, where MPs, whether Barisan Nasional or Barisan Alternative,  could not even get a decent chance to speak.

In these circumstances, a  campaign should be launched  in all the 193 parliamentary constituencies to allow the people to express their disappointment and disapproval that  Parliament does not allow MPs from both Barisan Nasional and Barisan Alternative ample time to debate the people’s concerns, starting a grass-roots demand for Parliamentary reform as part of a larger nation-wide demand for political and economic reforms in the country.

(19/2/2000)