Draft law plans for a bolder Parliament

A report has been been drafted to propose a bill to reform and empower the 'outdated' Malaysian parliamentary system.

Unchanged since it was codified by the British in 1956, the system is woefully outdated when compared with similar legislative bodies based on the Westminster model.

"Thus, we are much behind time in structure and manner to realise our role as the balancers of power of executive excesses and abuses, as well as judicial interpretation and misinterpretation," Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar told a forum in Parliament House today.

Speaking at a discussion on "Strengthening Parliamentary Democracy and Human Rights Compliance in Malaysia" organised by the association of ex-human rights commissioners Proham, Wan Junaidi said the situation has led to Parliament becoming simply an instrument of the government of the day.

This, he said, is akin to an "elected dictatorship" that rules through Parliament rather than by it and whereby the executive both proposes and disposes of the agenda.

Such handicaps, he said, not only hobbles the parliament, but also the judiciary. As such, said Khalid, any real change to be created can only be done at the behest or pleasure of the government of the day.

Wan Junaidi posited that the legislature therefore needs to evolve with the times to be at par with other Westminster-based parliamentary systems, though he stressed that it is important to work within the system to change it.

"We have to work within the constitution, the rule of law and the rules of the House. We cannot go beyond that.

"That is why I mentioned that the system ought to be changed. If the system doesn't change then it doesn't work. We can't create outside the system."

Wan Junaidi was appointed by the speaker of the Dewan Rakyat to lead the initiative to draft the report on revamping and reforming Parliament.

The committee was formed by using legal provisions that allow the speaker's office to look after the best interests of the Dewan Rakyat.

"So I just convinced the officials of parliament services - the legal officer of Parliament, to say that it is the inherent right and authority of the speaker of Dewan Negara, in order to improve the services of Parliament, so I said we make use of that rather than looking at the literal interpretation of the law.

"I got it through like that, after some argument with legal officers on the legality of the point," he said.

Among other matters, the bill seeks to restore the Parliamentary Services Act repealed in the 1980s, and to enforce privileges and remuneration rules to powers under parliamentary control by amending existing laws on the matter.

Wan Junaidi said the draft has been completed, but requires vetting and approval by the speaker and senate president, as well as de facto law minister Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz (left).

Following this, it will be submitted to the cabinet and attorney-general for approval before it can be tabled in Parliament.

Amongst the freedoms that the proposed plan seeks to introduce is the power of the Speaker to form and appoint additional permanent committees, special select committees and departmental select committees as is the practice in other countries.

These committees will allow Parliament to handle various issues like human rights and administer its own affair on its own without being at the mercy of the federal government.

The whole process, he said, may take up to nine months, as various parties need to define the "dots and dashes of the law".

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