Parliament to introduce prime minister's question time

The Prime Minister's Question Time is one of the three key changes for the parliamentary reforms to be tabled in the parliamentary session in July.

This was revealed by the deputy speaker Nga Kor Ming during the "New Malaysia - Old Politics" forum at Wisma Methodist in Kuala Lumpur today.

The Prime Minister Question Time will emulate the same convention in the United Kingdom (UK), said Nga.

In the UK, it is held in a single session every Wednesday where the prime minister spends around 30 minutes answering questions from members of Parliament.

"This is one of the best practices implemented in the UK's House of Commons.

"The PM will come to answer questions by the MPs. He cannot delegate the task to his deputy. We actually plan to live telecast the Question Time, so you don't have to rely on other unfounded news," Nga said in his speech.

Nga said the next change is the introduction of the Ministry Day.

"For instance, Monday is the Finance Ministry day. So it is compulsory for minister Lim Guan Eng to come and answer questions pertaining to his ministry. For other days, he can focus on his work and he doesn't need to spend the entire week in the Parliament."

The government will also propose the Commission of Parliamentary Services Bill 2019 in the next sitting to separate the Parliament from the executive power through the Prime Minister's Department.

Currently, de facto Law Minister Liew Vui Keong is in charge of parliamentary affairs.

"We want to make Parliament become an independent house in line with the doctrine of the separation of powers.

"Now the present structure is Parliament is subjected to the Prime Minister's Department.. it doesn't make sense. It should be independent from it."

For the record, Nga mentioned the plan to table the bill in October last year. - Mkini