Does the Malaysian Parliament need reform? – Rama Ramanathan

What’s Parliament supposed to do? How many Malaysians can answer that question by speaking non-stop for one minute? Can you? Where should you look for a good answer?

When I say “Member of Parliament,” whose picture comes into your mind? What is he or she doing? Where is he or she doing it? Does the scene occur during election season or after? Do you know how your MP measures up against other MPs’? What tasks should fill an MP’s waking hours?

I looked at the website of the Parliament of Malaysia to see if there is a description of an MP’s roles and responsibilities. I could not locate anything. So, I turned to the British Parliament.

The UK Parliament’s website briefly describes what MPs’ do, where they do it, how they do it and when they do it – in order to effectively represent their constituents and their political parties.

For the representation to be effective, an MP must know what constituents and the party are saying or expecting; this requires the MP to interact with constituents and party representatives, as well as to conduct research. To do this, the MP needs staff and one or more offices.

The MP has to manage time effectively. Schedules must be planned; logistics must be managed; meetings must be attended; minutes must be kept; documents must be written or reviewed; phone calls must be made, research must be directed, digested and disseminated.

For the representation to be effective, the MP must negotiate or resolve conflicts between the demands of various constituents. Businessmen may urge the MP to oppose minimum-wage legislation while unionists urge the MP to support it. The MP has to be aware of how her party will instruct her to vote – her party expects her to obey the party whip, not her conscience. The MP has to explain her vote to her constituents: both how she voted, and why.

For the representation to be effective, the MP, if he is a member of the ruling coalition, has to use his powers of influence and negotiation to persuade Ministers to do what his constituents desire. For instance, if you’re the MP for Pontian, how do you get the Education Ministry to build a public university in your constituency? Or change agricultural laws such that they favour pineapple factories, at the expense of tobacco farmers in the constituency of the Minister for Agriculture?

For the representation to be effective, an MP who is not a member of the ruling coalition has to work extraordinarily hard. Opposition MP’s are treated badly by the ruling coalition. They have limited access to Ministers; this is a huge problem in a country with an endemic culture of patronage. Even when they do have an audience with the Minister, there is slim likelihood of an outcome favouring a constituency which did not vote for the ruling coalition. (It is therefore unsurprising that opposition MP’s often resort to “exposing” and shaming Ministers.)

For the representation to be effective, the voting choices of constituents have to be respected by the ruling coalition. This means the ruling coalition must treat “opposition” MPs’ as equals. This means Ministers must find ways to work with “opposition” MPs,’ to consult them before moving a vote in Parliament about the budget, legislation, etc.

In Malaysia, for the representation to be effective, the royalty must also be factored into the equation. We are the only nation which upon independence increased the number of royal offices: before independence we had 9 royal households to support; after independence we have a Yang di Pertuan Agung in addition to the 9 Sultans. In return for surrendering most of their powers the Malay Rulers were granted privileges. Presently it falls upon the ruling coalition to prevent the Rulers from claiming rights they have relinquished, while not denying them their Constitutional rights. The Malaysian government has to do more work than the governments of most other countries!

The subject of Parliament and MPs’ is on my mind because today I heard over twenty people from various stages and walks of life call out what they see as wrong with our Parliament.

The list is long! If I had to summarize it in one sentence, this is it: “The Malaysian Parliament is set up to be a rubber stamp for the Government’s decisions.” Here’s what’s behind that sentence:

1. Our Parliament doesn’t meet for enough days in each year.

2. Our Parliament has too many MP’s.

3. Our Parliament doesn’t have mechanisms to allow debate of subjects which are not proposed by the Government (the cabinet).

4. Our Parliament doesn’t exhibit substantive debate, i.e. debates are devoid of the results of research. This is partly because MP’s aren’t provided with sufficient facilities and staff.

5. Our Parliament doesn’t routinely establish standing (permanent) and select (ad hoc) committees to assure the depth and quality of its work and to hold Ministers accountable.

6. Our Parliament doesn’t equitably distribute constituency allocations and responsibilities between MP’s.

7. Our Parliament doesn’t work at being transparent; this is exhibited in the poor facilities provided to journalists, the poor arrangements for visits by the public and a website which doesn’t even include Questions put to Ministers and the Answers they give.

8. Our Parliament doesn’t record the way each MP voted on each subject put to vote.

9. Our Parliament doesn’t ever turn to referendums or public consultations.

10. Our Parliament doesn’t exercise discipline equitably.

11. Our Parliament doesn’t challenge disproportional representation in the Senate.

12. Our Parliament doesn’t offer Prime Minister’s Question Time.

It’s our Parliament. How is it functioning? Does it need reform?

I expect that in the coming months there will be many opportunities to learn about how modern Parliaments function, and how our Parliament measures up against others. You might want to ask your MP for his job description and ask him how he thinks he and our Parliament measure up to local and global expectations and benchmarks. – July 17, 2014.

* Rama Ramanathan reads The Malaysian Insider, and blogs at write2rest.blogspot.com.

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