Call on Malaysians to sign the online petition for at least a two-week Parliament to focus on Covid-19 pandemic and not a one-day Parliament on May 18 where MPs could not speak at all

I call on all Malaysians to sign the online petition for at least a two-week Parliament to focus on the Covid-19 pandemic and not a one-day Parliament on May 18 where Members of Parliament could not speak at all.

The online petition, launched by Aliran last month, called for at least a two-week parliamentary meeting from 18th May said:

“This farcical one-day parliamentary sitting appears to be just to fulfil the constitutional requirement that Parliament should convene no later than six months from the last parliamentary sitting. Parliament last met in December 2019.

“To defer the actual proceedings to July – more than eight months from the last proper sitting – makes a mockery of this constitutional requirement, which was aimed at ensuring that the executive does not hold a monopoly of power without any parliamentary oversight for too long.

“We call for at least a two-week parliamentary sitting from 18 May (excluding the Raya break) – perhaps through teleconferencing or with proper social distancing – to be held as soon as possible so that critical issues can be tabled and debated immediately!”

The petition deserves the support of all Malaysians who want to see parliamentary democracy flourish in Malaysia and not a system which is emptied of all meaning of parliamentary democracy and violating the important principles enshrined in the Malaysian Constitution on the separation of powers and the rule of law.

The online petition is available at the site:

https://www.change.org/p/prime-minister-yab-muhyiddin-yassin-get-parliament-to-sit-for-2-weeks-from-18-may-not-just-1-day

The Malaysian government is obdurate in its decision to hold a one-day Parliament on May 18. The government has also no plan to prepare for a virtual Parliament and Parliamentary Select Committees, especially on Health and Social Care although Malaysians have been urged by the government to prepare for the Covid-19 pandemic to last for as long as the next two years – until an effective vaccind is developed and widely available.

Let us sign the online petition to make a difference.