Truant MPs reflects a lack of seriousness in carrying out duties - groups

 

The Seed Community for a Professional Parliament condemned truant MPs who failed to attend the afternoon session of yesterday’s august house sitting.

In a statement, the group claimed the situation had caused the sitting to be temporarily postponed in order to fulfil the necessary quorum of at least 26 members in the House.

“We condemn the embarrassing incident with 201 (91 percent) MPs for skipping the session, an act tantamount to an insult to the august House as well as tarnishing the image of elected representatives who are entrusted by the rakyat.

“This indifference reflects the lack of seriousness of MPs whether on the part of the government or the opposition in carrying out their responsibilities, maintaining discipline and upholding the trust given by the rakyat while the Parliamentary session is ongoing,” said the coalition today.

Based on the poor turnout shown by MPs yesterday, they questioned whether the previous clamour to reopen Parliament during the emergency was mere rhetoric.

The coalition of civil society groups’ statement followed reports that 201 MPs failed to attend yesterday’s afternoon proceedings.

According to the standing order, the Dewan Rakyat must fulfil a quorum of at least 26 MPs for a sitting to convene.

The statement was jointly signed by Bersih, Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas), Institute for Political Reform and Democracy (Reform), Undi18, Engage and Bait al-Amanah.

In the same statement, the civil society groups called for an open apology from each party whip to the people for the absence of their party’s elected representatives.

Additionally, the seed community urged party leaders to guarantee internal and inter-party coordination to ensure a minimum 50 percent of party MPs at any time during the sittings and that the quorum of 26 members is met at each sitting.

They also called for a 50 percent attendance rate of the sitting days for each MP. - Mkini