Outspoken PKR parliamentarian N Surendran, who is making a comeback to Parliament on June 9 after a six-month suspension, has wasted no time in taking the effectiveness of the August House to task.
Surendran said the Dewan Rakyat is a waste of public money if it continues to act merely as a rubber stamp, to pass only the federal government’s proposed bills and motions.
“Proposals put forward by Pakatan Rakyat MPs do not see the light of day. We are only allowed to ask questions and we have to wait for our chance to ask as there are many MPs around,” the human rights lawyer lamented.
Parliament is in dire need of reforms, Surendran said, to allow the opposition to raise more issues and more time to be allocated for debate.
“The perception that the Dewan Rakyat is a mere rubber stamp has been perpetrated by the government,” Surendran said during his speech at the mock parliament session held at the Penang legislative assembly on Saturday.
“But it is not true that the House is a mere rubber stamp as it is a place to debate important laws. It is a great forensic chamber of the people’s conscience,” he told the young participants who mostly comprised law students and young budding politicians.
Surendran (left) said the situation was different from that of the British Parliament where the House of Commons allocates 20 days for the opposition to table its motions for debate.
These are called “opposition days”, Surendran added, saying that reforms in Parliament were necessary for it to achieve its full and real potential.
Surendran spoke at the event organised by Penang speaker Law Choo Kiang, human rights NGO Suaram and the Penang chapter of Amnesty International, where a two-hour session was held to debate the issue of police reforms and setting up of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to address cases of custodial deaths.
Since the beginning of the year, the country has seen nine custodial deaths in four months, but the federal government is not interested in forming the IPCMC, recommended in 2005 by former chief justice and chairman of the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operation and Management of the Royal Malaysia Police, Mohammed Dzaiddin Abdullah.
‘SB personnel should be absorbed into the CID’
DAP’s Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim, who was also invited to speak at the event, said the police have lost their focus, as their jobs these days are more towards arresting opposition politicians.
He expressed shock to learn that Special Branch (SB) officers sent about 1,000 reports a day to their bosses or 300,000 over reports a year, compared to the 10,000 crime reports sent by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).
“SB personnel should be absorbed into the Criminal Investigation Department to focus more on probing crime instead of monitoring and arresting opposition politicians,” Sim (right) said during his speech at the same venue.
“Currently, for every CID officer, there are five administration staff. There is no balance and focus in the police force which is why less time is spent on solving crime,” he added.
Sim said the IPCMC is not proposed to punish the entire police force, a notion wrongly perceived by the latter, but to act only on errant ones.
“The IPCMC is set up also to deliberate on the welfare of police personnel, to propose rewards for members who perform well and to prevent politicians from interfering in police work, including the appointment of the inspector-general of police,” he added.
Malaysiakini
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