SABAH STATE ASSEMBLY SITTING TOO SHORT

THE 14TH Sabah State Legislative Assembly sitting will commence on the 13th of June 2013 with the swearing in ceremony for all the elected state assemblymen. The sitting will be officially opened by the Tuan Yang Terutama on the 17th of June to 20th of June 2013.

17th June is used for the officiating of the Assembly sitting by the TYT, and the actual sitting to whole the question and answer session from 10 to 11am is on the 18, 19 and 20th of June. The rest of the time is allocated for the debate on the TYT opening speech. The summing up and reply is to be made on the 20th of June.

Luyang Assemblyman Hiew King Cheu said this arrangement on the sitting to discuss the people’s matter has not been given the utmost importance because there are so many important issues and matters are to be dealt but the time given is so limited and short.

He said the meeting should be at least 14 days and not just merely three days (18, 19 and 20th). This is very unfair for the people who had waited for such a long time for their problems to be brought up in the state assembly meeting, and to seek a solution and answer.

The time set for the Question and Answer session is only one hour per day, how can the many questions from the members be answer in such a short time?

This means that many questions are not been given the chance to be tabled in the assembly. We need some answers to be answered in the Assembly, so that the matter can be clarified to further depth and in more details.

The one-hour time given is not even enough to get 5 questions answered, In Parliament, the time is one and a half hour, and they can only go through 7 or 8 questions a day.

Hiew can’t understand why such a short time is set for an important state assembly sitting. There are now 12 opposition assemblymen plus those with the BN, what chance do we have in getting our question to be tabled?

Besides the normal Q n A , there are the debates on the TYT opening speech and other matters, and we find the few days of sitting is definitely not enough to present and table the matters arising. The question is that, what is the use of holding state assembly meeting while the people’s problem can not be brought up?

Hiew requests the State Assembly to reconsider and extend the assembly sitting to a longer period and this is a necessity in doing so. The assembly is for the purpose to sort out the people’s problem and matters, and we should give them a chance for their problems to be heard and not to be sweep underneath the carpet.