Parlimentary control of Executive turned upside down

It has become Parliamentary tradition and convention in Malaysia for 56 years from 1959 to 2015 for a Minister to answer a question when asked, and not push it to a later date or to the very last day of a Parliamentary meeting.

KUALA LUMPUR: Suspended Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang has warned that Prime Minister Najib Razak and the Cabinet seems to have a lot to hide on the 1MDB scandal and the RM2.6 billion political donation. “The entire system of governance and checks-and-balances to ensure meaningful parliamentary control of the Executive is being turned upside down”

“The ulterior motive was to avoid full accountability on the twin scandals.”

Lim, who is also DAP Parliamentary Leader, recalled that he had predicted last week that the Umno/Barisan Nasional (BN) government would flout parliamentary tradition and conventions to stack all parliamentary questions about the Prime Minister’s RM2.6 billion “donation” during the current 25-day budget meeting of Parliament and answer them in “one go”, not allowing the subject to be pursued further even if MPs are completely dissatisfied with a “tai chi” non-answer.

“That was my reaction to the bad, undesirable and unacceptable parliamentary precedent set by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Azalina Othman, on the first day of the current meeting on October 19, refusing to answer questions on the RM2.6 billion “donation” issue from Lim Guan Eng (Bagan) and Lim Lip Eng (Segambut) on the grounds that the government will answer questions about the ‘donation’ and other related questions on an undetermined date of the present meeting.”

Lim was commenting on Azalina telling the media on Thursday that Najib or another Minister would explain on December 3, the last day of Parliament, on the political donation issue.

“It’s no use Azalina claiming that the parliamentary Standing Orders do not specify that an answer must be given on the day a parliamentary question is asked,” said Lim.

The Standing Orders do not empower a Minister to avoid or evade an answer, stressed Lim, and even more important, it has become the Parliamentary tradition and convention in Malaysia for 56 years from 1959 to 2015 for a Minister to answer a question when asked, and not push it to a later date or to the very last day of a Parliamentary meeting. “It is shocking that at a time when the Speaker is talking about parliamentary reforms we are seeing Ministers doing the very opposite and making Parliament subject to Executive control.”