Pakatan MPs slam attempt to limit attendance in Parliament

 

With MPs fully vaccinated, separated by a plastic screen and observing physical distancing, there is no reason to limit attendance, says Amanah’s Hatta Ramli. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan MPs are up in arms over the news that there may be a limit to the number of MPs allowed to attend next month’s Parliament sitting.

Citing concerns about the spread of Covid-19, deputy speaker Mohd Rashid Hasnon today said that the Dewan Rakyat committee will hold discussions with the government and opposition chief whips to determine the number of MPs allowed to attend the next Parliamentary session, which is set to start on Sept 6.

“I think they are really trying to make it difficult for Parliament to function properly and are throwing every spanner at it to make sure it isn’t operating,” DAP’s Charles Santiago said.

“This just shows how low they will go,” he said, adding that Parliament should be an independent office as opposed to being “a side office of the government”.

The Klang MP was also concerned that the proposal may be linked to the vote of confidence Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is due to face in the September sitting.

After an audience with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong last week, Muhyiddin said he was confident he still enjoyed majority support among MPs and that his government would table a motion of confidence in the Dewan Rakyat in September to test his majority.

Stating that he was worried that Parliament might implement a hybrid sitting for the vote of confidence, Santiago warned that the Malaysian public will not take any “subversion of the country’s democratic processes” lightly.

PKR’s Petaling Jaya MP Maria Chin Abdullah was just as vehement against the idea of limiting MPs, stating that Rashid owes them an explanation as to why there should be a cap on the number of parliamentarians.

Earlier today, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said nine new Covid-19 cases linked to Parliament were detected, bringing the total number of infections to 97.

While Maria noted that last month’s session had to be cut short due to mass Covid-19 tests for everyone in Parliament, she stressed that all the cases would have since been quarantined.

“Unfortunately, security at Parliament is so lax. During the previous sitting, there were over 1,000 staff members who were around. They should be the ones restricted, not the MPs,” she said.

Amanah secretary-general Hatta Ramli also didn’t take too kindly to Rashid’s statement, stating that “everybody” should be allowed to attend the sitting.

“We should do it like the previous meeting,” the Lumut MP said.

“We have been vaccinated, the place has been sanitised, we’re already separated by a good distance and there is a plastic screen (between MPs). If anything were to happen, it wouldn’t be in the Dewan.”

The first meeting of the Fourth Session of the 14th Parliament will sit for 15 days from Sept 6 to 30, while the second meeting will run for 32 days from Oct 25 to Dec 16. - FMT