opinion

Azalina went to Australia, what can her puppet do?

Rama Ramanathan

Last week, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said spent a couple of days leading a Malaysian "parliamentary reform" delegation to meet the Speaker of the Parliament of Australia. What did Azalina and her entourage do there?

I was unable to locate any Australian reports of the delegation's visit.

According to a Bernama report, Azalina said the purpose of her visit was "to review the implementation of the select committee (sic) as part of the national parliament's transformation effort."

I was happy to learn that Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia, Speaker of our Parliament, was not a member of the delegation – though one of his deputies was.

I expect Pandikar's absence must have been the first topic of conversation between the Tony Smith, Speaker of the Parliament of Australia, and Azalina.

I have no doubt Azalina gave some wily explanation for Pandikar's absence, and Smith nodded politely.

I have no doubt that after his meeting with Azalina, Smith had a good laugh with his mates about a Parliamentary reform delegation led by a government minister.

A government minister (Azalina) leading a delegation to meet the Speaker of the Australian Parliament signals that the Speaker of the Malaysian Parliament is a puppet and that Malaysia has a sham democracy.

I also learned that the delegation included Datuk Wee Ka Siong (MCA), another Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, and – wait for it – Vel Paari (MIC)!

I am sure the Aussies are wondering, as I am, why Vel Paari, who holds no elected office, was included. Does he share the task of manipulating Pandikar? Is he to be the next speaker?

Anyway, Azalina seems to be creating a basis for her to say that she, Pandikar's puppet master, is working to reform Parliament.

I wonder what the agenda of the meeting was. I wonder what Azalina's report of the visit will contain. I wonder why Australia was chosen.

I'll not speculate. I'll just list a few Parliamentary reforms I hope for.

I hope Pandikar will get at least the trifling goals he has set – the government has already thwarted his goal of introducing reforms by November 30 last year, as I wrote earlier.

I hope Pandikar will make all announcements about Parliament, not a minister. Parliament's job is to scrutinize what minister's do – therefore, having Azalina speak for Parliament is like having a snake speak for the pest control department.

I hope Pandikar will wake up to his role as guardian of representative democracy, that he will go on an offensive against his puppet masters and earn the support of the public.

I hope Pandikar will include time for non-government business in the agendas of Parliamentary sittings.

I hope Pandikar will add educational resources to our Parliament website so that MPs and the general public will better understand how Parliament is supposed to function.

I hope Pandikar will get for Parliament a budget and a workforce which is not controlled by a minister.

I hope Pandikar will publish a comprehensive white paper which will state the reforms he intends to implement, the benchmarks (e.g. Parliament of Australia) he will adopt and the dates by which he will accomplish all his reforms.

I hope Pandikar will have the courage to seek a mandate from the people for his office. By this, I mean that I hope he will run for office as "Speaker seeking re-election" and that all parties will not run candidates against him (as I wrote earlier, this is the practice in the United Kingdom) - on account of a parliamentary reform manifesto.

Is Pandikar up to the challenge? – March 3, 2016.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer, organisation or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.