Reforming Parliament top on Pakatan agenda if it wins federal power

Parliament is the first institution that needs an overhaul and will be first on a Pakatan Rakyat (PR) government's list of reforms should it win federal power, PKR lawmaker R. Sivarasa said.

The Subang MP and other speakers at a forum on legislative reform in Penang said this was necessary so that Malaysia could practise genuine participatory law-making, unlike the present situation where Parliament often ended up being a "rubber stamp".

"We have to give Parliament far more power and to do checks and balances on ourselves," he said, adding that if PR believed in democracy, reforming Parliament should be a priority.

One of the first things to have would be specialised select committees to "monitor, investigate and question ministries on anything, like those set up in Indonesia, Australia and Britain," he said last night at the forum held at the Karpal Singh Learning Centre in Bukit Gelugor.

These committees were "vital", he said, and were a more effective system to scrutinise each ministry rather than have all 222 MPs looking at more than 20 ministries as was the case now.

The committees' hearings would also be televised and transparent, he said.

Besides introducing the select committee system, Parliament also needed more effective mechanisms to allow questioning of government decisions, as well as to hear minority voices, Sivarasa said.

The present Standing Orders of the Parliament did not allow Parliament to be more democratic in scrutinising the day-to-day running of the government.

Beyond just making laws, a democratic Parliament should also question the government on current matters, he said.

"Written questions must be sent 14 working days ahead. Let's take the current budget session in Parliament as an example. It is eight weeks long so by the time they get to my questions, they would be 2½ months old.

"'Sudah basi' (already stale)," he said, adding that in England and Australia, the parliamentary system had changed and the notice for MPs to send questions ahead was much shorter.

Sivarasa also said in a democratic parliament, the leader of the country must be ready to stand in Parliament to answer questions.

In England, he said, the prime minister's question time was a constitutional convention held as a single session every Wednesday when the House of Commons sat.

"The prime minister will spend 30 minutes answering questions from MPs, who need not submit their questions in advance.

"That is what we call accountability... these are the mechanisms that make a parliament effective." Sivarasa also said the voices of the minority must also be heard and a number of days could be set aside for that purpose.

But in the Malaysian Parliament, the business of the government took precedence over everything else, according to the Standing Orders, he said.

This meant motions by the opposition would be pushed aside.

Sivarasa said such reforms must be first implemented in PR-ruled states – Penang, Selangor and Kelantan – in their respective state assemblies to show the people that the coalition believed in a democratic institution and was moving towards that direction.

Full consultation on new laws

Global Movement of Moderates chairman Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said there should be a participatory law-making process which allowed more discussion and transparency with media coverage.

He said there should be a set of formal guidelines on passing a new law and the required representation from stakeholders.

Such a system existed in Denmark, he said, where the government had guidelines on the quality of laws tabled. Every new bill will be studied by a committee of stakeholders.

Even the Danish public could study the bill online and give input to the minister, as draft laws were posted to a website.

"The discussion should not be just for show," Saifuddin said.

In contrast, Malaysia hardly ever held public consultations when there was a new law to be tabled or one to be amended or repealed.

He said there were probably only "two, or not more than five instances" of proper public consultation, with the latest being the National Harmony Act.

"In our current situation, there is a lack of public consultation. Sometimes, even the MPs were not aware that a bill had been passed because it was done so fast.

"Before the minister in charge of a certain bill makes the first reading, MPs must debate it first in a select committee.”

On the select committee system raised by Sivarasa, Saifuddin said during the question-and-answer session later that these committees could hold government officials and ministers accountable for poor decisions made.

"Without select committees, (officials and ministers) can escape scrutiny," the former Temerloh MP and deputy higher education minister said, noting that Malaysia did not have a culture where top office-bearers or civil servants would resign to accept responsibility for mistakes and failures.

No evolution in Parliament

Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong said the Malaysian Parliament should be an evolving institution, like Britain's, on which the Malaysian model was founded.

For example, he said, Britain's Parliament only introduced the standing committee system to monitor ministries in 1979.

He called for the Malaysian Parliament to be modernised to accommodate the different voices and provide room for ideas to be heard.

"The government is not interested in the opposition or backbenchers venturing into policy matters.

"Basically, the government just needs everyone there to rubber stamp the policies," Liew said.

Using the budget as an example, Liew said the 222 MPs had to go through the budgets of 24 ministries.

Due to constraints, there were often no questioning of civil servants or debates on the details.

"We just look at the number, at the heading and then bring up other issues we want to highlight because there is no other avenue," Liew said.

Too often, the MPs take up time by debating local issues in their constituencies rather than focus on law-making. A way to balance both was to have separate debates and speeches on local constituency issues so that parliamentary time was not affected, Liew said.

He said Britain's Parliament allows MPs to raise issues of importance through a series of private members' adjournment debates.

He also lamented the reduction of parliamentary sitting from 70 days to just 50 days a year, compared with 150 days in England.

Selangor assembly reforms

Selangor legislative assembly speaker Hannah Yeoh told the audience of reforms introduced by the state PR government, such as televising the sittings and the passing of the Freedom of Information Enactment.

She said select committees had also been formed such as the Select Committee of Competency, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat) which investigated and held public hearings on issues.

The chairman position of the state's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was also reserved for the state opposition leader, she said, adding that the state had also made it compulsory for the opposition leader to accept the appointment.

"We also amended the house's standing orders to make sure that the reforms made are continued, in case a new speaker is appointed and he or she does not want to maintain the changes."

Yeoh said opposition motions were also allowed and debated, which was something unheard of in Parliament.

She said when the ruling party had a two-thirds majority in the state, it must give voice and space to the opposition.

"The stronger the opposition, the better the government can function. That was why I allowed BN to table a motion on hudud," she said, referring to her decision in June this year to approve the motion to discuss the implementation of the Islamic penal code in the house.

BN later withdrew the motion. – October 21, 2014.