Listening to the live telecast of the parliamentary proceedings, it was interesting that one BN MP challenged the opposition to first reform the State Parliaments(Legislative Assembly) which the Pakatan Rakyat now control - Penang and Selangor (and, surely Kelantan as well)
What were the Reforms they were talking about?
Opposition Days in Parliament - at present it is always the government motion that are debated first, and most of the Opposition motions never get debated by reason of time. So, the suggestion was that as in other similar parliamentary systems, we should have 'Opposition Days' - i.e. days when it is the Opposition Motions that get debated first. In an example, some countries have as much as 20 Opposition days.. (not sure whether in a sitting or in a year or for the entire term). A very good suggestion, it is sad that Opposition motions never get debated nowadays.
SELECT COMMITTEES - it was proposed that as in Parliaments in other jurisdictions, Malaysian Parliament should also set up PERMANENT Select Committees on say Education, Health...(maybe for all the different Ministries) made up of MPs from BN and Opposition, who then will have more time to consider and debate the subject matter, and could also serve as a 'watchdog' monitoring the relevant Ministries, policies, reforms, etc... [In Malaysia. only temporary select committees on select issues have been set up, I believe. like Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Electoral Reform]. These committees can also receive inputs, have public hearings, etc. - again an excellent idea. This debate started off with the proposal to set up a Parliamentary Select Committee on the TPPA - which the government, apparently, is not keen to do.
The Challenge have been made to Pakatan Rakyat - will they start by the implementation of these suggestions in Penang, Kelantan and Selangor?
LIVE TELECAST - well the full proceedings is available 'live' on RTM 1 (90 minutes), and on the internet RTM Parlimen for the full session. There is even repeat of the proceedings on the internet site. SYABAS
- What is the State of affairs in Selangor, Penang and Kelantan?
[There are problems with the Hansard(Penyata Prosiding Parlimen) at the Malaysian Parliament website. I have been trying to get to the Hansard and read what happened in Parliament - but have not been able to read let alone download it. I managed to view the proceeding for 10/7/2013 but not the other days -
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment