Speech (2)
by Lim Kit Siang when proposing amendments to
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Bill during committee stage
in Dewan Rakyat on
Tuesday, 16th December 2008:
A Parliamentary Committee on Corruption to
establish important principle of parliamentary oversight of MACC
indispensable if the failure Abdullah�s five-year National Integrity
Plan is to be avoided
Second Amendment to MACC Bill �
Fasal 14:-
Menggantikan �Jawatankuasa Khas Mengenai
Rasuah� dengan �Jawatankuasa Parlimen Mengenai Rasuah� setiap kali
perkataan-perkataan berkenaan muncul di dalam Rang Undang-undang
[Replace �Special Committee on Corruption�
with �Parliamentary Committee on Corruption� where it appears in
the Bill.]
Pindaan Fasal 14(2)
MEMOTONG dan DIGANTIKAN dengan �Jawatankuasa Parlimen hendaklah
terdiri daripada tujuh anggota yang hendaklah dilantik oleh
Dewan-dewan Perwakilan yang menggambarkan perwakilan di Parlimen dan
diketuai oleh seorang Ahli Parlimen Pembangkang, dan tiada seorang
daripada mereka merupakan anggota pentadbiran
[Clause 14(2) - DELETE and SUBSTITUTE:
�The Parliamentary Committee shall consist of seven members to
be appointed by the House of Representatives reflecting the
representation in the House and headed by an Opposition Member
of Parliament, none of whom shall be a member of the
administration.]
Pindaan Fasal-fasal 14(3) dan 14(4)
Memotong Fasal 14(3) dan 14(4)
[Delete Clauses 14(3) and (4)]
Pindaan Fasal 14(5)
Penomboran semula Fasal 14(5) sebagai Fasal 14(3) yang dipindakan
menjadi �Jawatankuasa Parlimen hendaklah, tidak lambat daripada
mesyuarat Parlimen pertama pada tahun berikutnya, mengemukakan
laporan tahunannya kepada Parlimen mengenai semua aktivitinya
sepanjang tahun yang berkaitan dengan laporan berkenaan.�
[Re-number Clause 14(5) as Clause 14(3) which
should be amended to read: �The Parliamentary Committee shall,
not later than the first meeting of Parliament of the following
year, submit its annual report to Parliament of all its
activities during the year to which the report relates.�]
Before his highly-principled resignation as
the de facto Law Minister in the Prime Minister�s Department in
September over the gross abuse of government powers which saw the
arbitrary and frivolous detention of DAP MP for Seputeh and Selangor
Senior Exco Teresa Kok, Sin Chew senior reporter Tan Hoon Ching and
blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim had spoken publicly of
the proposed legislation for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
He said that a constitutional amendment would be needed as well as a new
MACC Act to replace the Anti-Corruption Act 1997.
He spoke about the need to set up a Special Parliamentary Committee on
the Prevention of Corruption and an Anti-Corruption Advisory Board, as
well as the propoposed Operations Review Panel and the Corruption
Prevention and Consultancy Panel, the former two under the new
legislation while the other two could be done administratively.
Under the MACC Bill before the House, the Special Parliamentary
Committee on the Prevention of Corruption has disappeared and instead we
have in Clause 14 a �Special Committee on Corruption� which clearly is
not a Parliamentary Committee in the true sense of the term which
establishes the principle of MACC responsibility to Parliament but a
mere Special Committee on Corruption comprising MPs but which is finally
responsible to the Prime Minister rather than to Parliament.
As a result, this Special Committee on Corruption comprising MPs is not
a creature of Parliament but a creature of the Prime Minister, making a
mockery of the claim that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission is to
enjoy true independence from the Executive coming under parliamentary
responsibility.
The other four �check-and-balance� committees, whether the
Anti-Corruption Advisory Board; Special Operations Review Panel;
Corruption Prevention and Consultative Council; and a Complaints
Committee are all beholden to the Prime Minister or the Executive,
making nonsense of the principle of parliamentary responsibility of the
MACC.
In fact, the MACC Bill is so watered down that the principles of its
independence from the Prime Minister�s control and
accountability/responsibility to Parliament can be quite tenuous and
even fictitious.
The original intention to amend the Constitution to give the Malaysian
Anti-Corruption Commission a constitutional status has been abandoned
while there is no clear-cut provision to establish its responsibility
and accountability to Parliament.
The appointment provision is quite ludicrous � the seven members to be
appointed by the Yang di Pertuan Agong, which means on the advice of the
Prime Minister.
Clause 14 (3) provides that seven MPs shall be nominated by the Leader
of the House of Representatives, who again is the Prime Minister, i.e.
the Leader of the House (who is the Prime Minister) advising the Prime
Minister to advise the Yang di Pertuan Agong on the appointments.
As the Special Committee on Corruption is to comprise MPs, why is the
Prime Minister shy in calling it the Parliamentary Committee on
Corruption?
Is this just to give the impression of some form of �parliamentary�
scrutiny without actually permitting robust and proper parliamentary
stewardship?
If such a Parliamentary Committee on Corruption is to be meaningful, its
composition must reflect the parliamentary representation of the
different political parties in the House and its membership decided by
MPs themselves and not by the Executive. Furthermore, the Chairman of
the Parliamentary Committee on Corruption should be an Opposition MP.
*
Lim
Kit Siang, DAP
Parliamentary leader & MP for Ipoh Timor
http://dapmalaysia.org