Experts call for parliamentary reforms
SUBANG: A panel of experts have called for reforms in the parliament, following the historic win by the Opposition last Saturday, which has loosened the Barisan Nasional’s (BN) grip on the Dewan Rakyat.
Law expert Prof Dr Shad Saleem Faruqi, who spoke at a public forum entitled Parliamentary Reform in Malaysia, has called for sweeping changes in an effort to build up the capacity of Parliament.
"Parliament does not have its own parliamentary draftsman, Senate is supposed to be a check-and-balance system. Senate debates, but apart from the odd comma or full stop, or the odd number here and there, never in 50 years has the Senate defeated a Dewan Rakyat bill," Shad said, identifying a few of the problems with the current parliamentary system.
Shad proposed that select committees be set up to investigate important bills, and that members of the public be included in the select committees to hear the bills.
He also stressed the need for an impartial speaker.
"What is crucial now is an impartial speaker," said Shad, who found that support measures need to be put in place for Parliament to work more effectively.
The measures suggested by Shad include:
» each MP be assigned research staff and legislative assistants;
» the Houses of Parliament be assigned legal counsel;
» the duration of Parliament be fixed, and premature dissolutions forbidden by law, with election dates set in advance; and
» most importantly, a Parliamentary Institute be set up to train MPs about the law and parliamentary procedure.
Shad emphasised the last point, commenting "we have INTAN to train civil servants, and ILKAP to train the judicial service. But we have nothing to train MPs".
He called for an increased question time in Parliament, and increased media coverage of question time, especially questions directed to the prime minister.
He also called for a drastic increase in the sitting time for MPs.
"MPs in Malaysia only sit in Parliament for 78 days in a year, and this is very low," said Shad.
He was speaking at the forum, organised by Taylor’s College, at its campus in Subang Jaya here.
Other speakers at the forum were Tunku Abdul Aziz, and Prof Patricia Leopold. Abdul Aziz was the former special adviser on ethics to the UN secretary-general, and Leopold is the head of law at the University of Reading.
Bar Council chairman Ambiga Sreenevasan chaired the the forum.
Abdul Aziz, who condemning the vulgarities and excesses of the past Parliament, emphasised that while politics and ethics are at "different ends of the spectrum", leadership requires a higher degree of ethical behaviour.
In his speech, Abdul Aziz said, "politicians are in an implicit and unwritten social contract. They are a credit to themselves, and honour to their democratic system".
Criticising the levels of corruption in Malaysia, which he described as being "in robust health", he urged Barisan leaders to "learn to lead by example".
He also criticised Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s attempts to curb corruption, saying there was "a lot of rhetoric, but nothing was translated into positive action".’
The final speaker was Leopold, who spoke on the issues faced by the House of Commons. While touching mainly on British issues, she did encourage for Parliament to be self-regulatory and proactive in identifying potential problems and regulating them.
The Dewan Rakyat was remembered more for the sexist remarks, racist sentiments, name-calling and personal attacks among MPs rather than as a mature law-making body.
Updated: 11:41PM Thu, 13 Mar 2008
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