AS the 14th Parliament convened on July 16th barely two months after the historic May 9 general election, there is great excitement as well as euphoria for the upcoming events of the Dewan Rakyat in the “New Malaysia” era.

The Parliament will see as many as 90 new faces, and with Pakatan Harapan sitting on the government bench, there is immense hope from Malaysians that a fresh start for democracy is upon us.

Unfortunately, over the years, the state of Parliament has been nothing short of disastrous.

During the rule of Barisan Nasional, Parliament in the eyes of the public had been reduced to nothing more than a mere rubber stamp for the ruling coalition, in addition to MPs making a fool of themselves with their endless bickering and childish demeanour.

Although this may be entertaining at times for us, but in all seriousness, the quality of our legislative branch was slowly but surely on a slippery slope to mediocrity.

As with the previous parliamentary sessions, bills that were favoured by the government will be pushed through by sheer majority rule alone – no matter how controversial and lop sided they are – with debates happening merely just for show.

This has occurred on many occasions with Acts like the Anti Fake News Bill and the Prevention of Terrorism Act which enables detention without trial up to two years.

“New Malaysia”

Therefore, in the spirit of a “New Malaysia”, the PH government must make its priority to empower our Parliament to be on par with our worldwide peers.

First steps have been taken towards this with the realisation of the Pakatan manifesto to place government agencies like the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Election Commission under the purview of Parliament.

This ensures accountability and transparency in the agencies’ affairs unlike the years before whereby these institutions merely acted to curry favour with the ruling administration.

Although progress has been made, but this must not mean the PH government can be comfortable and rest on their laurels as much more has to be done in order to strengthen Parliament.

What I would personally like to see in the days and months ahead is for Parliament to adopt the weekly prime minister’s question time as seen in the UK.

This will allow MPs to personally ask their questions to the prime minister which will display greater accountability in the government to the electorate.

As the prime minister will not be aware of the questions asked prior to question time, this will prevent him to provide any prepared scripted response.

It will also ensure that the prime minister is prepared at all times on the issues happening in the government.

Apart from that, Parliament should also recognise the position of the opposition leader and the shadow cabinet on an official basis as part of the parliamentary system on par with the prime minister, cabinet members and the speaker.

Parliament Select Committees

This will allow the opposition the opportunity to raise pressing issues as well as to table any Parliament bill with ease.

Another piece of reform which should be enacted by Parliament is to ensure that Parliament Select Committees are established at all major ministries.

To guarantee check and balance, these committees’ must be chaired by opposition members which will ultimately prevent any scandals from being covered up and hidden from the public eye.

Last but not least, Parliament sittings should be broadcasted live on public television rather than just being available only on the Internet.

This will provide all Malaysians, regardless whether urban or rural, young or old, rich or poor to witness and evaluate their MP’s performance in Parliament.

The role of Parliament in our legislative institution is paramount and is in need of the reforms above to be a beacon of Malaysian democracy.

Although we are finally on the right track again, there is much work to be done in the next five years before we can restore the Dewan Rakyat as the great voice of Malaysians once again. – July 18, 2018.

*Sheikh Shamir 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.