Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia says the opposition must set up a shadow cabinet as it can prevent time wastage. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Afif Abd Halim, March 9, 2016.Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia today told the opposition to explain why it had yet to set up a shadow cabinet, saying that such an entity could save time in Parliament.
He said a lot of time in the lower house was wasted with MPs repeating questions which their colleagues had already asked in their absence.
A shadow cabinet would see just one representative from the opposition asking about one particular topic, saving the Dewan Rakyat a lot of time, said Pandikar.
“Why can't you form that (shadow cabinet)? It is part of democracy. Why don't they look at themselves?
“I have done the reforms they want. Why can't they do certain reforms themselves?” Pandikar said at a press conference in Parliament today.
He was referring to the parliamentary reforms he had proposed last year, which he said today would be tabled during the current session.
Pandikar said the reforms in Parliament would only be successful if MPs behaved themselves.
Instead, many MPs spent hours delivering a speech that could have been shortened to under 60 minutes, he said.
Opposition leader Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail last year blamed the lack of parliamentary reform and funding for the now-defunct Pakatan Rakyat's failure to set up a single shadow cabinet.
She had said that a shadow cabinet could only be formed if Parliament agreed to pay for the cost and renumeration. – March 9, 2016.
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