LETTER | Five-day sitting of Parliament to fool (the public)?

LETTER | The Dewan Rakyat will sit for five days from July 26 to July 29 and on Aug 2, while the Dewan Negara will sit for three days from Aug 3 to Aug 5.

The sitting will be the Special Meeting of the Third Session of the Fourteenth Parliament. It will be the third Special Meeting of Parliament in recent years.

Two Special Meetings had been called by then prime minister Najib Razak under Standing Order 11(3). The first – a two-day sitting – was to debate a motion to decide on the participation of Malaysia in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) in 2016. The second – a one-day sitting – was to debate the tragic downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 in 2014.

A royal address by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (the king) is not required for a Special Meeting. A royal address is pursuant to Parliament being convened for the first meeting of a new session in a calendar year. The Dewan Rakyat has yet to be convened for the First Meeting of the Fourth Session of the Fourteenth Parliament (current Parliament) this year. 

The Dewan Rakyat, on the other hand, is being reconvened as the Special Meeting of the Third Session. It last sat on Dec 17 last year and has not been prorogued by the king.

So, the Special Meeting on July 26 is proper. One may recall that the Special Meeting in 2016 was on Jan 26 and held before the First Meeting of the Third Session of the Thirteenth Parliament which commenced on March 9 with a royal address. The propriety of that Special Meeting was not raised, and rightly shouldn’t.

However, the coming five days may not be sufficient, given that there will be the explaining of the National Recovery Plan (NRP), the amendments to the laws and regulations to allow for hybrid parliamentary proceedings and, importantly, the laying of the proclamation of emergency and emergency ordinances before the Dewan Rakyat.

The last is mandated by Article 150(3) of the Federal Constitution. As rightly reported, there are seven emergency ordinances, namely (in order of promulgation):

· Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance 2021

· Emergency (Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases) (Amendment) Ordinance 2021

· Emergency (Employees' Minimum Standards of Housing, Accommodations and Amenities) (Amendment) Ordinance 2021

· Emergency (Essential Powers) (No. 2) Ordinance 2021

· Emergency (Essential Powers) (Amendment) Ordinance 2021

· Emergency (Offenders Compulsory Attendance) (Amendment) Ordinance 2021

· Emergency (National Trust Fund) (Amendment) Ordinance 2021

So, there is a lot on the plate – so to speak.

Will these five days be sufficient? Najib allocated two days for the Dewan Rakyat to debate the TPPA.

The five days may provide an opportunity for MPs to debate measures to address the Covid-19 pandemic. However, can the five days accommodate the constitutionally mandated laying or tabling of the emergency proclamation and ordinances as well?

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim rightly wondered if debates would take place in the Dewan Rakyat on July 26.  Or is it to fool (the public), as Anwar said in a video address on his Facebook page? 

When Parliament was convened in 1971 – 21 months after the 1969 proclamation of emergency – the provisions in some of the emergency ordinances that were promulgated during the emergency rule were presented to the Dewan Rakyat in different and separate bills of Parliament.

In other words, if the emergency laws as provided in the ordinances were to continue to have the force of law, they will have to be laid in a bill or bills and be subject to the full legislative process: first reading, second reading and third reading.

It is not a law passed by Parliament if Parliament does not exercise its legislative power as mandated by Article 66 (on the legislative procedure) as well as in accordance with the Standing Orders (Nos. 48, 53 and 61 on first, second and third readings respectively).

So, there is no turning away from parliamentary debates on the emergency ordinances. And given that the emergency ordinances have to be laid or tabled anew as bills of Parliament, is five days sufficient?

On this, Anwar has a point.

But in these times, political leaders need to be conciliatory and seek a middle ground. It’s important that both sides of the political divide reach out so that Parliament can be “the main debating stage to safeguard the Federal Constitution, give voice to the rakyat’s aspirations, and to ensure the country’s administration is legitimate and that it carries out its duties according to the law.”

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.