THE Dewan Rakyat at its current five-day sitting should allow voting to amend the standing orders to enable select committees to hold hybrid or online meetings, two MPs who chair committees said.

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Wong Kah Woh and Health, Science and Innovation select committee chief Dr Kelvin Yii said the standing order that requires all types of parliamentary meetings to be held on the premises of Parliament building, should be amended.

Alternatively, if permissible, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun could also use his powers to allow such meetings to be held in hybrid form, Wong and Yii said in a statement today.

Yii, the Bandar Kuching MP, said in a letter to Azhar dated today that hybrid meetings would enable MPs who are select committee members and who are from Sarawak and Sabah to participate more easily.

“(Otherwise) MPs from Sabah and Sarawak will have to undergo quarantine every time they have to attend a select committee meeting,” Yii said.

If Azhar cannot use the speaker’s powers under the standing orders to make new rules to allow hybrid meetings, then he should allow MPs to move a motion on the matter and for it to be put to a vote.

The vote would be to amend Standing Order 83(5A) and part of 83(5) which states that all types of parliamentary meetings and hearings must be held in the parliament building. 

“This is important to ensure that select committees can continue to play their check and balance role on the administration,” Wong and Yii said in their joint statement.

The special five-day sitting, which began today, does not have any debates or voting scheduled according to the agenda on the order paper. The sitting is mainly for ministers to brief MPs on the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and national recovery plan, the state of emergency, vaccination, and finances. – July 26, 2021.