Gov't exploiting Covid-19 to avoid parliamentary scrutiny, says Kit Siang

Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang feels that with its Multimedia Super-Corridor background and aspirations towards a technologically-driven society, Malaysia should be one of the first countries to have virtual parliamentary meetings.

That it is not happening, he claimed in a statement today, is because the PN government wants to exploit the Covid-19 pandemic to bypass parliamentary oversight and scrutiny.

"A survey of parliaments world-wide will show that Malaysia is the only country whose Parliament is locked down and where there is no parliamentary oversight or scrutiny during the Covid-19 pandemic," he said.

"It is not that Malaysia does not have the information technology, but what is lacking is the political will of the PN government to ensure robust parliamentary oversight and scrutiny during the Covid-19 pandemic to prevent abuses of power, rampant corruption, revival of kleptocracy and widespread violation of human rights from rearing their ugly heads," he added.

"This is why the suggestion by several analysts and academicians for use of online platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Cisco Web Meetings and Google Meet, to conduct a full parliamentary meeting instead of having a ridiculous one-day sitting of Parliament on May 18 is unlikely to be given serious attention," said Lim.

He said that in most countries, parliaments continue working to provide parliamentary oversight and scrutiny of government responses to the epidemiological and socio-economic situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

"Several parliaments even set up special parliamentary select committees on the Covid-19 pandemic. For instance, the House of Commons in Canada set up a special committee on the Covid-19 pandemic on April 20 which will meet by video conferencing twice a week."

He also cited that the New Zealand Parliament had established an epidemic response committee with government and opposition MPs to scrutinise government actions, while in UK's House of Commons, several parliamentary select committees had held online inquiries into various aspects of government measures for the Covid-19 pandemic.

"These ranged from how social distancing and lockdown conditions create new vulnerabilities for women and children living in abusive circumstances to human rights implications of the government’s overall response to the coronavirus crisis," he said.

In addition to the sitting being limited to just one day, de facto Parliament and law minister Takiyuddin Hassan said that media access to the sitting on May 18 would be restricted to official media RTM and Bernama on the instructions of speaker Mohamad Ariff Mohd Yusof who cited safety reasons due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

The sitting will be broadcast live online.

May 18 marks the first Dewan Rakyat sitting since the “Sheraton Move” political coup triggered a change in government with the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan administration led by former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The government is planning to table four motions and two bills during the one-day session.

Harapan has persistently called for the sitting to be extended with former minister Liew Vui Keong submitting a motion to extend it to eight days, but PN contended that prolonging the gathering of MPs could pose a Covid-19 contagion risk.

Former premier Mahathir has successfully filed a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin but with government business prioritised in proceedings, it remains to be seen if the Langkawi MP’s motion will make it to the floor before the sitting is adjourned. - Mkini