Let’s make the ‘must-convene-soon parliament’ a national conciliation parliament


WHEN Iskandar Puteri MP and DAP senior adviser Lim Kit Siang goaded Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to break his “silence” into making a statement that it is the cabinet’s responsibility to advise Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah whether the emergency should be extended, I said he did not have to do that.

So, when Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said that there must be no hidden agendas behind calls for Parliament to reconvene and that Parliament must not be used “as a tool to satisfy the yearning for political power of certain individuals”, I will say the same.

With the greatest of respect, he does not have to say it, because the opposition has given its promise and vow that it will not call a no-confidence motion against the prime minister, only discuss Covid-19 prevention measures, the immunisation programme and related matters.

Here is the same question to Hishammuddin: how about conciliatory democracy, as promoted by Martin Ebeling (Conciliatory Democracy, Palgrave Macmillan 2017)?

How ought we react to persistent political disagreement, asks Ebeling, who holds a PhD in Philosophy from Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany.

In response to the question, he proposes “a new conception of democracy”, which he calls “conciliatory democracy”.

Ebeling contends that we ought to pursue epistemic conciliation, the ideal of which is to find a middle ground to replace the ideals of consensus and of a compromise of interest, which is at the centre of much democratic theory today.

Ebeling says that if we and our “representatives leave behind a manipulative rhetoric designed to divide rather than to convince and engage in sincere public deliberations about the issues at stake in decision-making”, there comes a point where we ought to regard others as equally informed and our disagreement as “rational and reasonable”.

In the circumstances, he says further, the best bet at getting it right is “to seek a middle ground”.

Now that the king has decreed that Parliament must reconvene as soon as possible, let’s make the much-awaited parliamentary sitting – the First Meeting of the Fourth Session of the 14th Parliament – a national conciliation Parliament. – June 16, 2021.

* 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.


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