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Saturday, April 11, 2015

Blame the MPs for causing all our problems

Open letter to all Members of Parliament: do you really know your job?
COMMENT
blame our Mps
By T K Chua
What is the source of the problems behind the troubling events unfolding each day in our country? I am referring to concerns over our fundamental liberty, the rights to free speech and information, our rights to equal treatments and protection under the law, our rights to be heard by an impartial body and our rights to see that the government does not tax us excessively or spend our taxed money lavishly.
Often, we blame the police for arresting us arbitrarily. We blame the AG’s Chambers for charging us selectively and the judges for adjudicating unfairly. We blame preventive detention without trial on the police. We blame violation of rules of natural justice on ministerial or executive power. We blame the ministries, departments and agencies for wasting our taxed money and for investing or doing projects without proper thinking. We blame IRB or Customs for taking away some of our hard earned money.
I think we Malaysians have looked at the wrong place to explicate our predicament. The source of our problems is Members of Parliament (MPs) of the Lower House or the Dewan Rakyat.
That may sound a little over simplistic.
But think about it: it is from the Parliament that the Executive branch gets its authority and the Judiciary gets the laws to interpret. Parliament should rightly be controlling the government of the day.
Where do you think the police get its authority to detain people without trial? Where do you think the police or the judges get to decide or interpret what constitute sedition? Where do you think the ministers get their power to decide arbitrarily, and without being subject to judicial review, when carrying out their responsibilities? Where do you think government ministries and agencies get their increased annual allocations even though they have been wasteful and their performance lackadaisical and pathetic?
I say it again; the fountain of power is the Lower House of our national Parliament. Without a Supply Bill and supplementary supply bill, the government can’t spend a single cent legally. Without legislation, no tax can be raised or levied. Without proper and specific legislation, the police can’t detain citizens without trial and can’t violate the rules of natural justice at their whims and fancies.
It was only with poorly defined legislation that the police, the executive branch and judges can define sedition as they wish. Without constitutional amendments passed by the Parliament, the executive branch can’t carry out policies or programmes that are ultra vires the constitution.
Do our MPs really know and understand their sacred roles and duties under our constitution and system of government?
Why must the MPs be bulldozed into passing Bills at short notice and in the wee hours of the morning? Why can’t the MPs, both from BN and PR, assert their authority to debate and consider the bills presented at their own time?
If a piece of legislation is poorly defined, confers arbitary power, and violates our basic rights, may I know whose fault is it, if not MPs? Is it the parliament that controls the executive branch or is it the executive branch that controls the Parliament?
Party line and party whip aside, do MPs have the conscience to know what is right and what is wrong; what is tenable and what is not; what is for the wellbeing of citizens and what is for politicking?
MPs are not robots. They must present their arguments with reasons and facts when debating Bills, not blindly support, in the name of toeing the party line, whatever is put on the table by the executive branch.
Surely there are certain fundamental issues which are non-partisan in nature. To blindly following the party line, MPs are competing to surrender their power away to the already very powerful executive branch. This is not the trait of a world class parliament but a third world parliament.
T K Chua is an FMT reader

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