IT is heartening and assuring that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has pledged that his administration will seek parliament approval for the emergency measures taken to preserve the economy against the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the end of his announcement of the Prihatin Plus stimulus package, he assures that the Supply Bills for the initiatives will be tabled when Dewan Rakyat reconvenes next month.

In a way, it is a vindication that Parliament has to pass legislation to provide for government spending. In other words, parliament approval is required for the fiscal stimulus in the Prihatin and Prihatin Plus packages.

But why wait next month when Parliament can reconvene much earlier than scheduled?

Parliaments around the world are already contemplating virtual sittings or meetings to adapt to the new circumstances caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a matter of fact, the European Union Parliament went for online voting on March 26 during a one-day extraordinary session to approve measures meant to channel €37 billion (RM173.6 billion) from available EU funds as soon as possible to citizens, regions and countries hit the hardest by the pandemic.

The British government too will set up a virtual parliament to allow its members to scrutinise its response to the pandemic following calls by more than 100 MPs who signed an open letter for the creation of a “digital parliament”.

In the letter to the clerk of the House of Commons – the lower house of the UK Parliament – the MPs said “in this time of crisis we urge you to work with the parliamentary digital services to design a digital parliament in which all members can participate”.

What is significant is that the call was also made by house speaker Lindsay Hoyle.

In a letter to hose leader Jacob Rees-Mogg, Hoyle asked if he (Rees-Mogg) would “make representations to government” to enable the house to legislate, scrutinise and represent constituents “virtually”.

Simply put, the speaker was calling on the government to allow a “virtual parliament” so MPs can take part in debates from home when the house returns to work on April 21.

The speaker joining in the fray is said to be “unusual”. But the British government must be credited for a positive response to the call as Rees-Mogg announced last week that the government was setting up a virtual parliament to allow MPs to scrutinise its response to the Covid-19 crisis.

Rees-Mogg himself stands credited as he unassumingly acknowledged that “parliament’s role of scrutinising government, authorising spending and making laws must be fulfilled and in these unprecedented times that means considering every technological solution available”.

Perhaps the Dewan Rakyat speaker can take a leaf out of Hoyle’s call. As the speaker is apolitical, his call should not be imputed with political motives.

As a former judge, he should be keen to see that the government is held to account.

It is time to make that call.

It is time for the government to be positive as well. The minister in charge of parliamentary affairs, Takiyuddin Hassan, should respond as positively as his British counterpart.

Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin too should include “virtual parliament” as one of his ministry’s initiatives.

It is time to pay heed to the experts such as eminent Prof Shad Faruqi and Anne Twomey, professor of constitutional law at the University of Sydney, who wrote:

“In an emergency, maintaining public confidence in government is essential. One way of supporting this is to ensure parliament can operate, to scrutinise government action and represent the wishes of the people. If the physical presence of MPs is not possible due to a pandemic, there is good reason to ensure such scrutiny and representation can occur by electronic means.”

A virtual parliament is needed in this time of crisis. – April 7, 2020.

* Hafiz Hassan reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.