#kerajaangagal183 – Muhyiddin and Takiyuddin will be held to their word that there would be debate when Parliament reconvenes
The Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin and the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Parliament and Law), Taikyuddin Hassan will be held to their word that there would be debate when Parliament reconvenes for five days from next Monday, July 26, 2021.
Yesterday in Kota Bharu Takiyuddin promised that MPs will be allowed to debate when the "special" five-day Dewan Rakyat sitting kicks off next Monday. He said the Prime Minister had written to the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara speakers requesting for the MPs to be allowed to debate and ask questions.
We do not want double-talk or duplicity. Let Muhyiddin and Takiyuddin deliver on their promise that there would be debate in the five-day special meeting of Parliament beginning next Monday.
As it is, the five-day special Parliamentary meeting next Monday is most extraordinary, as I don’t think there is any instance of any Parliament in the world which had held a five-day special meeting of Parliament solely confined to Ministerial statements. I am prepared to be proven wrong either by Muhyiddin or Takiyuddin.
Ordinarily, a Ministerial statement would not permit clarification nor would there be any debate.
As MPs are to be allowed this time to seek clarification and to debate on each Ministerial statement, and as a different Minister has been assigned to give a core Ministerial statement each day, I suggest that the format of each Parliamentary sitting would be a debate on the Ministerial statement after it had been made by the relevant Minister allowing MPs to seek clarification from the Minister as well to state their views on the subject of the Ministerial statement.
The Ministerial statement can then wind up the debate at the end of each sitting, responding to the clarifications sought and the views expressed by Members of Parliament.
As there is no Question Time, each sitting will have six hours of debate time. The Speaker should inform the Parliamentary Opposition Leader how many Opposition MPs would be allowed to speak on each of five days of the special meeting of Parliament, so that preparations could be made beforehand.
In fact, as the Covid-19 pandemic had been going on for the last 18 months, and the emergency declared on January 11, 2021 been in force for more than six months, each of the Ministerial statement should be circulated to MPs beforehand although embargoed from publication to enable smooth and efficient parliamentary debate.
Apart from the Ministerial statements, there should also be debate on the Emergency Proclamation and Ordinances. Each debate should be ended with a vote.