KJ moots ways for BN MPs to overcome 'trust deficit'

As the first parliamentary sitting of the 14th parliament looms, Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin has proposed several ways to overcome the people’s trust deficit towards BN.

He urged his party colleagues to begin preparations to ensure that BN becomes an effective opposition in the Dewan Rakyat, and act as a check-and-balance against the Pakatan Harapan government.

"I realise that BN will not be immediately recognised as a capable opposition. It is clear there is still a very wide deficit of trust from the people towards us. A large portion of us also has shared responsibility for the decisions made by the previous government, including myself, as a former minister.

"Nevertheless, our work as the opposition must continue. Although there is a deficit of trust towards us, BN must step forward to check-and-balance against the Harapan government, especially in parliament to strengthen the main democratic institution, as demanded by the new Malaysia [...]

"As an opposition, BN will also work towards ensuring that the role of the parliament is strengthened. I admit this was not fully implemented during BN's administration, but the spirit of the new Malaysia demands that we all change, especially BN," he said in a Facebook post today.

Among others, he urged that party-related tasks should be separated from that of its parliamentarians, and this would mean that the BN chairperson doesn’t necessarily become the opposition leader.

This is because the chairperson needs to focus on restructuring BN, and the legislative work in Parliament can be delegated to other teams that are guided by position and policies decided by the party.

After choosing an opposition leader, he said BN parliamentarians should also announce a shadow cabinet so the people would know who is checking on which minister.

The first parliamentary sitting since the 14th general election is slated to convene for 20 days starting July 16.

'Consider promises in manifesto'

Khairy said he hopes the government would consider several moves promised in the Harapan manifesto to strengthen the parliament.

This includes setting up parliamentary select committees, temporary committees, provide support to set up parliamentary caucuses and to allow time in the Dewan Rakyat for the opposition, whether to table an agenda for debate or to question the prime minister during the prime minister's question time.

He also reminded that BN still has the majority in the Dewan Negara, hence BN elected representatives should act as a responsible opposition and not "oppose for the opposition's sake".

Taking the government's plans to reintroduce the Sales and Services Tax (SST) as example, he said, "Although there may be differences in opinion about the SST, BN Dewan Negara members need to approve this bill because, without the SST, the government's revenue would be affected, and this would have an impact on the people," he said.

As for Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s decision to provide government MPs and allocation of RM500,000 and opposition MPs and allocation of RM100,000, Khairy thanked the prime minister saying that this is better than what BN had done before.

Nevertheless, he said he hopes that the government would consider providing BN parliamentarians with the same allocation as their government counterparts in the future.

"In the spirit of new Malaysia, voters should not be punished for their political choices during the election. To ensure that there are no 'leakages' in disbursing the allocation, strict conditions can be imposed, and a monitoring and audit system can be implemented on the funds allocated to all Dewan Rakyat members," he said. - Mkini