Dewan Rakyat sitting extended one day to decide on Act 342 amendments

PARLIAMENT | The Dewan Rakyat sitting has been extended by one day in order to debate and decide on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (Amendment) Bill 2021, announced speaker Azhar Azizan Harun.

The bill will now go through the debates in the second reading and be decided upon in the third reading on Dec 20 in the Dewan Rakyat.

The process was initially supposed to be completed by today.

“I have been informed that the prime minister, as leader of the house, has agreed to add one more day to (this sitting) that is on Monday (Dec 20) to allow the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (Amendment) Bill 2021 to be tabled and decided upon in the Dewan Rakyat,” Azhar said in the house today.

This immediately sparked protests from opposition MPs such as Mahfuz Omar (Harapan-Pokok Sena), RSN Rayer (Harapan-Jelutong) and Ma’mun Sulaiman (Warisan-Kalabakan), among others.

Space for discussion

The opposition MPs argued that they have all made plans to go back to their constituencies, with Ma’mun quipping that “Sabah MPs have already bought their flight tickets home”.

The current Dewan Rakyat sitting – which started on Sept 13 – was originally scheduled to end today.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim (Harapan-Port Dickson) eventually explained to the house that this extension was a result of a meeting this morning between Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah and opposition party leaders.

“We referred to the prime minister about the need to extend (the sitting) so that there is space for discussion with all sides and for the select committee to meet before proposing a few other amendments,” he said.

Based on their negotiations, it has been agreed that the select committee will meet at 8am on Monday, while the Dewan Rakyat proceedings will start at 10am.

“If the important issues (in the bill) are agreed upon, then we may consider supporting it, but if the few substantive items were not agreed upon, then we still have space to oppose and reject the motion.

“This was not a one-sided decision (to extend the sitting),” he said.

Exorbitant compounds

Anwar had previously said that the opposition bench cannot support the bill in the form it was tabled, due to concerns over the exorbitant compounds, among others.

The Health Ministry had yesterday revised the proposed punishments to make them less severe, but Harapan maintained that it will not support the bill.

This is because the party is of the view that the bill still leaves the door wide open for abuse of power, corruption, and double standards.

Act 342 currently gives the health director-general the power to impose a maximum fine of RM1,000 against individuals who flout standard operating procedures, such as failure to wear a face mask in a public place.

The bill had initially proposed a maximum fine of RM100,000 or a jail term not exceeding seven years for individual offenders.

This had been revised to an RM50,000 maximum fine or a jail term not exceeding three years. - Mkini