Ling: Failure to reconvene Parliament sitting a mockery of parliamentarians

Senator Alan Ling

MIRI (June 2): The failure to reconvene Parliament sitting is a mockery of parliamentarians of both the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara who are being deprived of the platform to speak out for the people, said Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak secretary Senator Alan Ling.

Ling was responding to a call by Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said for a political ceasefire among all political parties and Parliament to reconvene to focus on putting the people and country first during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Azalina, who made this call in a webinar recently, said by doing so, it would show the public that the country was moving forward and all politicians accept and provide criticism in order to fight the Covid-19 pandemic together.

Ling, who is also DAP Sarawak secretary, said he fully supports Azalina’s call to reconvene Parliament, as it is the platform for elected representatives as well as senators to highlight, debate and put forward suggestions and even constructive criticism to the ministers or ruling government to act upon.

He said it is undemocratic, depressing and sad that MPs cannot function in Parliament to hold the government of the day to account for their poor handling of the pandemic and scrutinise public expenditure.

“There are many issues to be debated if the Parliament convened, but people voices are being silenced,” he added.

Ling said while everyone can work together to curb the pandemic, the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government has not been transparent and inclusive enough to accommodate all MPs during the time of crisis like this.

“Now that this platform is shut, we can only raise issues through letters or press for the attention of the relevant ministry, this is rather ineffective and most often been overlooked and thus ignored,” he added.

The senator pointed out that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong has already decreed that the Malaysian parliament should be allowed to sit during the state of Emergency.

Ling said although the Emergency was declared in Malaysia on January 11 this year year on grounds of controlling and to flatten the Covid-19 infection curve, the effect is undesirable where the positive cases have reached record highs.

He claimed that the declaration of Emergency was actually to safeguard the PN government, which has actually collapsed due to unstable number of majority in the Dewan Rakyat.

He believed that the PN government lacked confidence to have a Parliament session for fear of a non-confidence vote in Parliament, especially when their largest ally Umno is threatening to pull out from PN government.

from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/34D2fB1
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