Inter-Research And Studies (IRAS)

This article has earlier appeared in Beritadaily.com on 21/10/2016 Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders, particularly from Umno, and top officials of the Election Commission (EC) have always wondered why many still do not trust the EC. Why view the electoral body and its functions with much suspicion? The latest redelineation plan by the EC has heightened this atmosphere of mistrust, with both sides of the political divide voicing their concerns on the proposals. Opposition parties from Pakatan Harapan and PSM, and BN’s predominantly Chinese component parties — MCA, Gerakan, SUPP and LDP – have criticised the EC proposal for promoting racial polarisation. The complaints and objections range from proposing constituencies that are overly Malay and overly Chinese, widening disparity in number of voters between constituencies, reduction of mixed race composition, and confusion among voters on voting districts. The main grouse of the critics is that opposition parties and BN’s “Chinese-based co...

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...

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...