The directive by the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, to Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Barisan Nasional MPs to attend every sitting of the Dewan Rakyat is most apt and timely.
What MPs from all parties, whether government or opposition, cannot understand is why there are so many Ministers who play “truant” from their parliamentary duties. If the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister can attend Parliament during question time to answer questions during the question hour, there is no reason for some Cabinet Ministers who not only stay away from Parliament at normal times, but also refuse to turn up during question time to answer questions from the floor.
Surely these Ministers cannot be busier than the Prime Minister or the Deputy Prime Minister. The problem is not that these Ministers who play “truant” from their parliamentary duties are too busy with “ official functions”, but because they either do not understand their parliamentary responsibilities or are shirking their parliamentary duties.
The excuse that Ministers are too busy with their “official functions” to attend Parliament to be accountable for their Ministry’s record and performance or failures and omissions is completely unacceptable, as parliamentary accountability should be among every Minister’s most important “official duties”.
When a Minister’s disregards one of his most important “official duties” to the extent that Parliamentary attendance and accountability becomes inconsequential which could always be delegated to the Deputy Minister or Parliamentary Secretary - at times even to a Deputy Minister or Parliamentary Secretary from another Ministry who knows nothing about the subject under discussion in Parliament - the Minister has completely failed in his Ministerial responsibilities.
It is understandable and acceptable that Ministers may not be able to be in Parliament to answer questions every time a question concerning their Ministries come up during question hour, but what is not acceptable is when Ministers virtually makes it a practice to stay away from the question hour during the entire parliamentary meeting - whether it lasts two weeks or eight weeks. A Minister’s inability to attend Parliament to answer questions or to reply to speeches should be an exception rather than the rule as in the case of many Ministers.
There are Ministers who, apart from the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister, who are quite responsible and diligent in their parliamentary duties, like the Minister for Works, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, the Education Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, the Minister for Energy, Telecommunications and Posts, Datuk Leo Moggie, the Minister for Science, Technology and Environment, Datuk Law Hieng Ding, the Minister for Entrepreneur Development, Dato’ Mustapa Mohamed, the Foreign Minister, Datuk Abdullah Badawi, the Defence Minister, Datuk Syed Hamid Albar, the Minister for Youth and Sports, Tan Sri Muhyiddin bin Yassin and the Minister for Rural Development, Datuk Anuar Musa, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Dr. Abdul Hamid Othman.
These Ministers are quite regular in Parliament either to answer questions, or to reply to MPs during policy debates, or to introduce Bills and stay behind to answer to MPs during the winding-up of the debate.
However, there is a substantial number of Ministers who fail muster in terms of the seriousness of their parliamentary commitments. I have no doubt that if a survey is made of all Parliamentary democracies, Malaysia will top the list in the number of Ministers who play truant from their parliamentary duties - both in terms of absolute numbers and the percentage of the Cabinet.
Anwar’s directive to Ministers to attend Parliamentary meetings diligently is therefore most timely and I urge Anwar to keep a close watch to ensure that does not top the list of parliamentary democracies with the most Ministers playing truant from their parliamentary duties. In this way, it is hoped that the standard of Ministerial commitment, seriousness and performance in Parliament could be raised.
(7/11/96)