Speaker’s rejection of urgent parliamentary debate on international furore on naked ear-squats video clip scandal a reflection of failure of Parliament to shake off the decades-old  mentality of being a government department

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Media  Statement (2)

by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Parliament, Tuesday): On  7^th July, 2005, the Speaker, Tan Sri Ramli Ngah rejected my motion for an urgent debate on the Proton and APs scandal as a matter of definite public importance. It was ruled not urgent.

On 15^th October 2005, the Speaker rejected my motion for an urgent debate on a matter of definite public importance, viz: the nation’s deep and worsening higher education crisis highlighted by the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) World University Ranking 2005, with University of Malaya plunging 80 places from 89^th to 169^th position and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) falling more than 89 places as to be completely out of the Top 200 Universities bracket, again on the ground that it was not urgent.

Today, the Speaker rejected the motion of DAP MP for Seputeh, Teresa Kok, for urgent debate on the naked ear-squats videoclip scandal which had  shaken public confidence in the professionalism and integrity of the police force to its very foundation.

The Speaker’s rejection of urgent parliamentary debate on the  international furore on naked ear-squats videoclip scandal is  a reflection of failure of Parliament to shake off the decades-old  mentality of being a government department, and shows that only baby-steps have been taken in the past two years for the Malaysian Parliament to become a First-World Parliament.

At this rate of progress, the Malaysian Parliament is unlikely to become a First-World Parliament even by 2020.

The Speaker had been completely misguided in the two reasons he had given for rejecting Teresa Kok’s motion for an urgent debate – that police investigations are not completed and the government will be establishing an independent commission of inquiry.

Both these reasons are neither acceptable nor adequate  reasons for rejecting Teresa Kok’s motion, as under the doctrine of separation of powers,  Parliament’s  role and responsibility to exercise oversight over the Executive, whether the PDRM or the Cabinet, cannot be displaced or denied by whatever the government is doing or proposes to do.

The Malaysian Parliament has still a very long way to go to become a First World Parliament – a journey which is made so much more difficult because of the 92% parliamentary hegemony of the Barisan Nasional.
       
(29/11/2005)