YOURSAY | What can be achieved in five days of Parliament sitting?

YOURSAY | ‘PN is still playing games and not carrying out the views of the king to…’

Nothing but 5 days of 'ministers' explanations' on Parliament schedule

Dewan Rakyat to convene for 5 days, beginning July 26

MPs worried Parliament sitting will turn into a govt briefing session

Hmmmmmmmm: It looks very much like a quarrel between two children. One of them wants his toy back but the other doesn't want to give it back. When one of the parents threatens the child to give the toy back to the other child, he damages the toy and tells him, “Now you can have it.”

So, I guess now all the speechwriters for the ministers are busy writing up the speeches to present in Parliament. Many of the ministers would probably see the speeches for the first time while presenting them. They wouldn't know or understand the content, having no part in preparing the speeches, promising actions which they do not either understand or intend to keep.

For that, they expect everybody else to listen to their speeches for five days. If any of the things that they promise to do in their coming speeches are any good, they should be putting those in action now, and our circumstances wouldn't be so dire.

What is there to explain? All have been sleeping on their jobs.

Dr Raman Letchumanan: I think this must be another world record - an agenda for a meeting that is so bare, just dates and nothing else.

Mind you, this is the agenda for a parliament in a fully functioning democracy to discuss the people's grouses after being suspended for a long time.

This should go into history books and school books on what an agenda should not be. Even an office runner would be sacked immediately if he produces such a piece of work.

Can't they at least fill in the subject matter of the briefing? Can't they just copy and paste from the king's decree? To even think the rakyat are paying gaji buta for the bloated cabinet and the civil servants for such lazy work.

The king was very specific about what he wants. I see this as an open insult and defiance to the royal institution.

Opposition, don't waste your time knocking sense into this stupid government. They can even disregard our rulers.

Get your communications teams to synthesise the issues in simple layman's understanding in all languages and blast it to the public. Don't just act smart only when Parliament convenes. Otherwise, you are no different from the government.

As I said earlier, the government is acting at its own peril. The Constitution requires all emergency ordinances to the laid and validated by the Parliament. Only Parliament can make laws.

There is no excuse for Parliament not able to sit. Otherwise, the ordinances may become illegal and all actions taken by the government unconstitutional.

The government is hoping the king would extend the proclamation of emergency beyond Aug 1, using the rising record Covid-19 cases. I am sure the king knows what to do in all his wisdom.

BusinessFirst: Despite the Yang di-Pertuan Agong's decree being repeated many times and granting an audience to the speakers of the House and Senate, Perikatan Nasional (PN) is still playing games and not carrying out the views of the king to allow debates, in particular, to hold the current government accountable for all their actions spending hundreds of billions upon billions in their disaster of a response to Covid-19 and its challenges.

It is apparent to all reasonable Malaysians that PN MPs and ministers just want to continue to remain in power.

I wonder what more the king and the royals can do, or will do, to right the ship that is clearly going off course because I do not think when Muhyiddin was appointed, anyone thought they would be getting such disastrous leadership.

Maybe in some ways, this is a blessing in disguise and after all the suffering, there will be a move to ensure that our leaders are competent or honest.

Pleb: PN is confident that millions and millions of Pfizer vaccine will be delivered on schedule to Malaysia. This will enable a high vaccination rate in the population thereby reducing Covid infections and death immensely.

They hope that once Covid is minimised, they can start the propaganda that this is a PN achievement. They hope the most important voting bloc in Malaysia will forget, or given a reason to forget about the high Covid infections and deaths, the collapse of the hospital system, the disintegration of livelihood of the people, and the incompetence in facing Covid and obeying SOP.

So, there is no way in hell they will allow anything that will contribute to their downfall, not even the Agong. They, too, control the media for the most important voting bloc, so this can be spun in many ways.

And the most important voting bloc in Malaysia is receptive, even obsequious to anything and everything they do, in spite of their performance. Gerrymandering will complete the rest.

Kim Quek: The proclamation of emergency and the subsequent ordinances can only be revoked if these are annulled by both Houses of Parliament (Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara).

And since the Dewan Negara sittings start only from Aug 3 and ending on Aug 5, such potential annulment will become academic and meaningless as the proclamation of emergency ends on Aug 1.

Hence, the sittings of the two Houses must be brought forward to end well before Aug 1 so as to comply with the dictate of Article 150(3) of the Federal Constitution that the emergency and the ordinances must be laid before both Houses for debate and approval.

There is no conceivable reason why this cannot be done.

Vijay47: @Kim Quek, if the sitting of both Houses was held on dates before Aug 1, it is highly likely that the emergency order would be annulled.

This would lead to the prime minister crowing that he respects the institution of parliamentary democracy and the fact that the merits and validity of the order were debated and ultimately annulled by the members themselves is evidence of his compliance to the dictates of the Constitution.

But with just two or three days to spare at the end of July, the emergency would already be in its death throes and ridding ourselves of it brings no benefit. Of course, it could also be argued that even in the final round, we managed to slay it.

However, should the order self-destruct on Aug 1, it would be another blemish on Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s lengthy dark record.

Hang Babeuf: What must the unhappy MPs now do? Insist on a vote of confidence in Muhyiddin’s government?

Or, on their way to that, insist first on a vote of confidence against the speaker? The members must reassert their control over Parliament. The Dewan Rakyat is their house, not the speaker's.

As the House of Commons Speaker William Lenthall (1591–1662) famously - and defiantly and, as it turned out, also authoritatively - declared: “May it please your majesty, I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as this House is pleased to direct me whose servant I am here; and I humbly beg your majesty's pardon that I cannot give any other answer than this to what your majesty is pleased to demand of me."

What is needed is not for MPs to bemoan the degradation of Parliament in the Muhyiddin & Co, but instead they must take back control once again of Parliament. It is theirs. And if they cannot make it theirs, then they will have nobody but themselves to blame.

They must simply work out - politically and procedurally - how to do it, to agree on how to get it done, and to make it "stick".

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying subscribers can post comments. In the past year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now.

These comments are compiled to reflect the views of Malaysiakini subscribers on matters of public interest. Malaysiakini does not intend to represent these views as fact.