Dewan Rakyat Speaker: Parliamentary reforms have been undertaken

KUALA LUMPUR: Some challenging parliamentary reforms have been undertaken within a year of the conclusion of the 14th General Election, said Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof.

He said central to the ongoing reform effort was the institutionalisation of six pioneer select committees, five of which had been working since January.

The select committees are the Consideration of Bills Committee; the Budget Committee; Defence and Home Affairs Committee; the Federal-State Relations Committee; the Public Appointments Committee and the Rights and Gender Equality Committee.

Ariff said these committees were all cross-party and could conduct oversight over policy and finance of a particular ministry and have the power to summon persons, records and documents.

“There is a need to establish a few more to cover some critical areas, such as the environment, international affairs and human rights,” he said at the “GE14 and The Year Since: Analyses and Perspectives” seminar at the International Islamic University Malaysia.

Ariff added that technical changes to practices had also been made to render the Dewan Rakyat more efficient and fair, which included ensuring that the Public Accounts Committee chairman was an opposition member.

He said the Dewan Rakyat, post-GE14, had an express mission to be people-centred and people-friendly.

“We have opened our doors to the public to engage in discourses. This exercise will, of course, include persons and researchers from academia, university students and even schoolgoing children,” he said, adding that it would gain more respect from the public.

“We will be checking our performance against CPA (Commonwealth Parliamentary Association) international benchmarks, and maybe a year from today, I will be able to report on more progress in the direction of uplifting the dignity of our Parliament to be in the position it should occupy rightly in the constitutional scheme,” he added. – Bernama

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