Parliament will be meeting for 40 days from next Monday, Oct. 14 to December 19, which would include 29 days for the 1997 Budget debate.
I am shocked that when the Dewan Rakyat meets on Monday, Parliament would be asked to suspend Parliamentary Standing Order 48 to allow the Broadcasting Amendment Bill 1996 to be immediately debated through all three readings, although the Broadcasting Amendment Bill had not been tabled in Parliament yet!
This is most improper as the government has taken several years to draft the Broadcasting Amendment Bill and it is only fair that MPs from all political parties, whether Barisan Nasional or Opposition, as well as the Malaysian public should be given ample time to study the amendment bill and to seek consultations from cross-sections of Malaysians concerned about the issue.
Furthermore, this is also against the Cabinet decision taken in January this year that MPs should be given at least two weeks’ notice for every Bill to be debated in Parliament.
The Minister for Information, Datuk Mohamad Rahmat, seems to have forgotten about the parliamentary farce in the special parliamentary meeting on January 8, 1996 to debate the National Council on Higher Education Bill as it had to be postponed because the Bill had not been circulated to MPs beforehand.
It is not that if the Dewan Rakyat does not suspend the Parliamentary Standing Orders 48 on Monday to immediately pass the Broadcasting Amendment Bill through all three readings, there would be no parliamentary business to be transacted.
There are in fact five private motions in the Parliamentary Order Paper for the budget meeting starting on Monday, two by the DAP MP for Kepong, Dr. Tan Seng Giaw and three by the DAP MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Guan Eng.
These five DAP motions concern the issue of Myanmar’s application to be a full member of ASEAN, the issue of East Timur, the United Nations Human Development Report 1996, the RM5 billion Kuala Lumpur Linear City (KLLC) project and the issue of the toll increases for the North-South Highway and the Jalan Kuching toll plaza.
The Barisan Nasional government can disagree with the views taken by the DAP on anyone of these five motions, but it must agree that meaningful parliamentary democracy must mean that parliamentary business includes opposition business and the opportunity and the right for MPs to canvass their views in Parliament.
I therefore call on the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad to ensure that the Cabinet decision in January that MPs should be given adequate time to study government Bills before debate in Parliament is honoured, and that Parliament should debate the issue of Myanmar’s application to join ASEAN instead of suspending Parliamentary Standing Orders to immediately pass the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill through all three readings and to block Opposition motions.
(9/10/96)