MPs: Let’s have Parliament live

Parliamentary sessions should be aired on TV, argue many MPs.

PETALING JAYA: Parliamentary sessions should be telecast live, many MPs on both sides of the political divide believe.

According to Klang MP (DAP) Charles Santiago, citizens had a right to know what the people who they voted for were doing in the Dewan Rakyat.

“Parliament should be televised. It is the house of the people, and we are the people’s representatives. We come here with a mandate from the people, and we’ve taken an oath to represent interests of the country.”

“What we do here has every bit of a link and (can result in) ramifications to the world outside, so they (Malaysians) have to know,” he told FMT.

Santiago claimed that if MPs knew they were being watched live on the air, they would be pressured to “get their act together”.

Kota Belud MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan agreed with these sentiments.

“These are the steps that we need to take to improve, because after a while, you see people who are sleeping or talking about stupid things (in the Dewan Rakyat).”

“If Parliament is telecast live, the people in our areas will know that their MPs are talking about their plight,” he said, adding that he often watched sessions via online streaming when he was not attending them.

Noisy sessions

Currently, parliamentary sessions are not aired on television. Radio Televisyen Malaysia’s (RTM) TV1 is the only channel that hosts programmes dedicated to the Dewan Rakyat.

These programmes consist of two 30-minute Dari Parlimen (“From Parliament”) pieces, aired at 10am and 11:30pm from Mondays to Thursdays.

In 2008, a daily live 30-minute telecast of Parliament was scrapped after several noisy sessions involving shouting MPs were shown on television.

Aside from snippets of the Dewan Rakyat shown during news programmes, most people have little access to seeing their MPs debate.

While there are some Parliament-dedicated online streaming links, most Malaysians have to rely on other forms of media for information.

This lack of availability, claimed Abdul Rahman, was why some “less-sensationalist” issues were not picked up by the media.

“We talk for hours on hours, but some of the time, what we’re saying is not sensationalist (enough) for the media to pick up. It’s all buried in the Hansard,” he said.

Backstage camaraderie

Balik Pulau MP (PKR) Yusmadi Yusoff argued that parliamentary sessions needed to be televised without any form of cutting or censorship.

“Participatory democracy is very important, and the public sphere must be flooded by all this relevant information.”

“If you want to see our country become developed, where society is being empowered by relevant information, the live telecast (of Parliament) has to be fair and unedited like you see in the United Kingdom,” he said.

However, not all MPs were for the the idea of live parliamentary telecasts. Citing backstage camaraderie, Cameron Highlands MP (MIC) SK Devamany claimed that many MPs were not enemies, but were in fact comrades.

He said that citizens unaware of this could misinterpret political jabs.

“In Parliament, the 200-over people here are friends. Outside (the Dewan), we are friends, whether we are from Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat.”

“Here we can shout at each other, and in the next moment, we can shake hands, because we have built that bond here. Even though there may be (a difference in) political ideologies, the comradeship is there,” he said.

Because of the legal immunity granted to MPs, Devamany argued, some of them tended to make “atrocious and very sensitive” speeches. The “comradeship” between MPs, he said, allowed them to take this into stride.

Citizens, on the other hand, could interpret this differently. Malaysia’s complex socio-political makeup, coupled with its many races and religion, Devamany said, was also a factor.

“The masses may sensationalise it, and unscrupulous people can take it and use it to disrupt the (socio-political) environment.”

“A remote guy who doesn’t understand this comradeship can get a different interpretation… Given that scenario, a perception can be totally distorted and be detrimental to national unity,” he warned.