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DAP will formally propose a candidate as Speaker of Parliament unless there
is consultation from the Prime Minister and the government nominee has clear
vision and ideas to provide leadership for parliamentary reform and
modernization for the Malaysian Parliament to make the quantum leap to
become a first-world Parliament during the present term Media Conference Statement by Lim Kit Siang (Ipoh, Saturday): DAP will formally propose a candidate as Speaker of Parliament unless there is consultation from the Prime Minister and the government nominee has clear vision and ideas to provide leadership for parliamentary reform and modernization for the Malaysian Parliament to make the quantum leap to become a first-world Parliament during the present term. Up to now, Members of Parliament have not received any notification from Parliament inviting proposals for nomination for the election of the Speaker of Parliament, following the death of Tun Mohamad Zahir Ismail who had been Speaker for 22 years on the last day of the adjourned parliamentary meeting on October 14. In the absence of such parliamentary notice to MPs, the question arises as to whether it is proper for Parliament to elect a Speaker when it reconvenes on November 22 for the continued 2005 budget meeting after the Hari Raya holidays.
The election of a Speaker is set down by the Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders as follows:
When Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became Prime Minister a year ago, he pinpointed the “First World Infrastructure, Third World Mentality” malaise as a great impediment to the success of the Vision 2020 objective of Malaysia becoming a fully developed nation, committed himself to uphold the separation of powers among the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary as well as pledged to lead a clean, incorruptible, efficient, trustworthy and people-oriented government prepared to hear the truth, guided by the motto of “Cemerlang, Gemilang, Terbilang”.
These noble goals and objectives could only be attained if there are structural and institutional changes to the entire system of governance, beginning with the creation of a first-world reform Parliament, so that the Malaysian Parliament could fully play its dual role, viz:
The 11th Parliament opened on May 17 with great promise and high hopes with the public government support for a first-world Parliament, with small but encouraging first steps for parliamentary reforms, like the appointment of an Opposition MP as Deputy Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and the establishment of Parliamentary Select Committee on the Amendment Bill to the Penal and Criminal Procedure Codes.
But these puny steps appeared to be all that the government is prepared as far as parliamentary reform and modernization are concerned, which would be the greatest letdown. The parliamentary opposition had proposed a parliamentary reform agenda to become a “First World Parliament”, which include:
Parliament has hardly scratched the surface of such a “First-World Parliament” reform agenda, and this is why the selection of the new Speaker must be judged from the perspective of whether the candidate has the vision, commitment and passion to advance the cause of parliamentary reform and modernization. For the past four decades, other Commonwealth and world Parliaments have gone through several generations of parliamentary reforms to enable their MPs to play more meaningful and effective roles as legislators and elected representatives, but for the Malaysian Parliament, time had stood still for the half-century as such ferment and effervescence of parliamentary reform had completely passed Malaysia by. There is a lot of “catching-up” for the Malaysian Parliament to do to become a First World Parliament, and MPs and the Malaysian people are entitled to know before the election of the Speaker whether the candidate for the high office is committed to an agenda of parliamentary reform and modernization. If the Public Accounts Committee Chairman, Tan Sri Ramli Ngah, is the government’s candidate to be the new Speaker, we will like to hear from him his vision, commitment and ideas about parliamentary reform and modernization and how he proposes to ensure the quantum leap to become a First-World Reform Parliament.
For instance, how Parliament can become a leading player in the national campaign against corruption, whether a Member of Parliament who has been suspended for three years as UMNO member for three years for money politics – as happened to Titiwangsa Member of Parliament Datuk Astaman Abdul Aziz – should vacate his parliamentary seat for a by-election to be held, not only to uphold the dignity of Parliament but even more important for Parliament to set the example of a new political culture of zero tolerance for corruption!
DAP may have to change our original position not to propose a candidate for Speaker for two reasons: firstly, there had been no consultation from the Prime Minister on the appointment of the new Speaker although I had written to Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi asking for a meeting to discuss the issue more than a week ago; and secondly, the virtual lack of progress or movement in the past seven months towards parliamentary reform and modernization to make the Malaysian Parliament a first-world Parliament.
If DAP has to propose a candidate, we will select one from the following three MPs: Dr. Tan Seng Giaw (Kepong), Chong Eng (Bukit Mertajam) and M. Kulasegaran (Ipoh Barat).
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