Inter-Research And Studies (IRAS)

The parliamentary caucus on reform and governance currently chaired by Port Dickson MP and PKR president Anwar Ibrahim was set up to lead the efforts to reform the parliamentary system and to address major issues on governance, looking into its weaknesses and generates initiatives to reform the administration. The parliamentary caucus is also reported to be planning to revive the Parliamentary Services Act which was abolished in 19992 by the then BN government who then transferred the parliamentary administration under the direct purview of the Prime Minister’s Department with a minister without portfolio appointed to handle all affairs related to the parliamentary staffing, budgeting and administration. To revive the Parliamentary Services Act, the caucus tasked to handle the effort must ensure that the future Act must be improvised and most not be part of the executive government’s instrument. The Act must ensure total independence of the parliamentary service, free from any inter...

This article has earlier appeared in the Beritadaily.com on 27/1/2017 The scandal surrounding the state-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and the case of a RM2.6 billion deposit found in the personal account of Prime Minister Najib Razak have not only become local headlines but have also gained international attention. This is because this nation has become Umno’s Malaysia where everyone must say yes and bow respectfully to the Umno president. Our nation’s three major organs – the executives, parliament and the judiciary system – are all right under his thumb. This is why he managed to bulldoze through many oppressive laws for use against his critics and opponents in order to stay in power. In Malaysia, the position of the prime minister has become too powerful. Checks and balances on him are currently non-existent because the institutions themselves have made him so. As for our parliamentary system, no doubt there are some checks and balances on matters pertaining to govern...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 9/1/2017 The issue of an opposition shadow cabinet has suddenly surfaced again following a poser by an Umno cabinet minister on the opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan’s readiness to govern the country should they win the next general election. In response to the challenge, a leader from Pakatan Harapan component Parti Amanah Negara gave an assurance that the opposition coalition’s shadow cabinet will be announced this year. So, what is so important about the opposition shadow cabinet today and why did Umno so often remind us that DAP’s own shadow spokespersons on ministerial portfolios are a sign that the party would dump its Pakatan Harapan partners in order to rule on its own should the opposition coalition win the next general election? Is it logical for DAP to rule on its own when it will only contest 50 parliamentary seats out of the total 222 seats? Even if DAP makes a clean sweep of the 50 seats, can it rule o...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 21/7/2016 Are you all surprised or shocked when we say a hung parliament will be good for our nation today? Yes, we suppose so. Some politicians will also condemn such an idea as crazy because it would not benefit them, their political parties, or help in their quest for power. They would reason that such a situation would only bring chaos to our nation. Correctly said, because these politicians have been in power for decades and yet they are yet to show any maturity in matters of governing this nation. A hung parliament is a situation where no political party or coalition of political parties from both ruling and opposition blocs obtain any absolute majority in number of seats in the parliament after a general election. The ruling party or coalition may gain just a sufficient number of seats, or it may be called simple or narrow majority, while the opposition party or coalition may have increased its parliamentary ...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 31/8/2016 It has been almost a year now since Dewan Rakyat Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia has spoken of his plans for parliamentary reforms. Pandikar also challenged the opposition members of parliament to resign from their constituencies if the parliamentary reforms do not take place under his stewardship. What and where are the parliamentary reforms that Pandikar has promised about a year ago. Until today, these reforms are yet to take place. Just exactly what did Pandikar mean by establishing a special chamber to discuss matters of public importance? Currently, we already have two chambers, the Dewan Negara and Dewan Rakyat. Then, why do we need another chamber for the parliament when the current two chambers are already sufficient to discuss matters of public importance. Reforms should be focused on the existing chambers in order to enhance their effectiveness, instead of creating another one to deal with some sort of “special...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 4/12/2015 WH Cheng When the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was in the midst of investigating the controversial and debt-ridden 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), its efforts and hard work were suddenly halted when the then committee chairman Nur Jazlan Mohamed and some other members who are mostly BN parliamentarians were abruptly removed and 'promoted' to positions in the government administration in a reshuffle by the prime minister. During the transition, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia had also disallowed PAC deputy chairman Dr Tan Seng Giaw from taking over the inquiry and had the entire committee suspended indefinitely. The suspension of PAC by the Speaker was justified by the explanation that the committee has been rendered ineffective following the departure of Nur Jazlan as chair and almost half of its membership. The truth is, the move by the BN government has made the PAC a lame duck, thus delay...

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 17/11/2015 WH Cheng Until today, we are still hearing many allegations made by politicians especially from the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition saying that Malaysia has been practicing the Westminster system in our nation’s parliamentary and governance structures. In many occasions, these BN leaders had also accused the opposition bloc in the parliament over the later’s failure to establish a shadow cabinet, by all means labelling them as non-compliance of the so-called Westminster system when opposition leaders spoke of the same against the BN government. Well, we have some questions here for the BN leaders who loudly claim the Westminster system has been long established herein Malaysia. However, we are uncertain if they are brave enough to face the facts that the Westminster system has never been in existence in our nation’s parliamentary and governance framework. Let us look at the parliamentary system of electoral,...

The upcoming 13th parliamentary seating which will soon commence its first session will see some intense debates from both sides of the political divide. Both the Barisan Nasional (BN), that is the governing coalition and Pakatan Rakyat (PR), the opposition coalition had indeed made history for themselves. BN with its reduced majority under a minority government status (based on its lesser percentage of votes received nationwide) and PR with its dramatic increased representation in the parliament which had never happened in the past. What are expected here are bill, laws and issues that are to be tabled or forwarded to the parliament would see an intense debate. To get the bill and laws through, it is by simple majority, but again, it is certain that the oppositions would not let it through that easy. On the other side, the BN members of parliament (MPs) and its government ministers would not be feeling the comfort that they have been enjoying decades ago. The parliamentary su...

Our nation's Senate or better known as the Dewan Negara in our national language, currently serves as the parliament's some sort of upper house. The Dewan Negara was established as per Chapter 4, Article 45 of the Federal Constitution of which also states the establishment of the and composition of the House of Representative or better known as the Dewan Rakyat (lower house). Unlike the Dewan Rakyat, the members of the Dewan Negara carrying the title of Senator are not elected by the people. They are all appointed by the respective state governments and the King (Yang Di Pertuan Agong) and serve a term of three years, of which their tenure can either be renewed or terminated at the pleasure of the respective state governments or the King. For those appointed by the King are usually nominees selected by the sitting federal government in Putrajaya and the King merely endorses those federal appointees by bestowing them with an official appointments. Recently, the DAP Nation...

The elections campaigning would stop once the clock struck 12.00 am this midnight. Tomorrow morning, the  13th general elections shall commence nationwide. All voters are urged to come out without fear to vote for whoever in your minds, and should you have made the correct decisions, do not hesitate to put your choice into the ballot boxes. The destiny of this nation of ours is in our hands. We hope, with the choice this time, nation would be able to move forward towards a new dawn. Whatever outcome it may have after 12.00 am tomorrow then, we hope the political parties or coalition who are on the verge of losing or may lost, would gently accept with open minds the decisions made by our people (the electorates) for the sake of the nation. This is a democratic nation and in general elections, there are those who won and so does those who lost. This is indeed a democracy in practice. The winner gets the chance to govern for a period of 5 years while the loser would take this opp...

Where is your Shadow Cabinet to prove your ability in governance? This is the question which is usually demanded by leaders of the Barisan Nasional (BN) to challenge the Opposition front Pakatan Rakyat (Pakatan) to prove their ability to work together (PKR, DAP and PAS) to govern this nation should they were to takeover Putrajaya after the 13th general elections (GE13). First of all, let us all ask the BN leaders and ourselves before we jump into some sort of conclusion or being influenced by what is being mentioned by all those BN leaders. Are the institution of an Official Opposition Front Bench and the establishment of a Shadow Cabinet being recognized in our nation? Does the Federal Constitution states that such institutions for the Opposition must be established? Or are there any provisions in any laws in this country which stated that the Shadow Cabinet would be recognized and shall work equally with the government of the day to provide various check and balance? The answers...

Besides having the need to reform the entire government machinery in order to reflect its professionalism and making it into a service-oriented corporation, the Parliamentary System in this country ought to undergo the reform as well. As we can see, eventhough our country is practicing parliamentary democracy, our nation's parliament does not seem to be functioning as it was supposed to be. Yes, there are loopholes, a lot of loopholes in the current parliamentary system. People has been commenting that Malaysia is adopting a rubber-stamped parliamentary system which is only task to proposed and approve laws. Which means, the political parties who hold the majority number of seats in the parliament shall always be a winner and limited debates are only allowed in order to provide some "democratic avenue" to the Opposition bench to provide their views. This is correct, having an absolute majority and having always got the powers to approve and amend laws or bills does n...

In parliamentary form of government, citizens do not vote directly for a chief executive. They vote for the legislative representatives or members of parliament who are organized into a few political parties. This in turn suggest that the parliamentary form of government by itself is not an index of democracy or authoritarianism characterizing any given state. But all parliamentary systems have in common a close institutional relationship between the executive and legislative branches of government. The chief executive is a prime minister selects other ministers of government which constitutes the cabinet or council of ministers. Each cabinet minister is responsible for administering a particular department or ministry i.e. defence, education, interior affairs, foreign affairs, justice, finance and so on. And the cabinet is voted into or out of executive office by a majority of the parliament.