An imbalance electoral reform panel

The parliamentary select committee on electoral reform which is scheduled to be officially established in the next parliament sitting on October had already saw its potential failure of which will eventually lead to its ineffectiveness.

First, the membership of the select committee shall comprise of nine members where it will be represented by five BN members of parliament, three Pakatan parliamentarians and one independent member of parliament. And worst of all, this committee will be adamantly chaired by a cabinet minister.

And there you see, with the composition of the select committee's membership which will definitely give more advantages to the BN side rather than both sides having the same and fair composition. So, what ever the committee chairman (a minister) says, he will certainly obtain the majority as there are already a firm five of them, whereas the Pakatan side will have limited say on all matters arise no matter how loud they voice them out as they will be having only three parliamentarians sitting in the said committee.

As such, will you be able to see any fairness and equality in status in this so-called parliamentary select committee?

Secondly, if the BN government is so serious of electoral reform as it had claimed, why didn't they include members of NGOs particularly of those with interests in electoral reforms, human rights, consumerism and most importantly the Bar Council as members of this parliamentary committee?

Having only members of parliament to sit in this select committee does not mean you will have all the actual feedback or sentiments from the ground. You must have at least some non-political people who are experts in certain field of studies too to sit in the committee, like those having experience in electoral watch, human rights, consumerism, legal and constitutional rights.

With such a fair and balance composition in the select committee structure only will be able to convince our people that this committee would serve us better as it will consist representatives from all kinds of levels from the various communities and interests.

Naming it as "parliamentary" select committee does not necessarily means that it should only consist members of parliament. It is a very outdated and conservative way of saying things or giving reasons.

Third, according to minister in the prime minister's department Nazri Aziz that this select committee would be practically in accordance to the convention and would not be subject to the house (parliament) rules. So, does that mean, this select committee, even if it is named as "parliamentary" select committee will not be directly responsible to the parliament? Then responsible to who? The prime minister's department? Then this select committee is considered already a rubber stamp even before its establishment.

Furthermore, Nazri's arrogance of adamantly saying "no means no" to Pakatan's request for the committee chairmanship had deliberately show the kind of "dictatorship" that will exist in this committee when a minister is appointed a chairman later.

Why, with only a minister as a committee chairman will only get the select committee to gain access to government facilities and other special privileges during meetings or any sittings? Why can't an ordinary member of parliament gain the similar status if he or she is appointed to chair the committee.

Haven't Nazri forgotten that all members of parliament are elected by the people to represent them in the parliament, to voice out issues on behalf of the people, to fight for the rights of our people and so on. You have no right to deny any access to these elected members of parliaments even if he is from the opposition bench.

It clearly demonstrates that the BN government had no respect for members of parliament at all.

You can see, various parliamentary level committees of all kinds of portfolios in the other countries, such as the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, The Philippines and Thailand were given all powers and access to government facilities in order to conduct their meetings, hearings and sessions. And they even have the powers to summon and scrutinize members of the civil service to its bench before the public and all its hearings are made available to the press in the interest of the public.

When actually our country would be able to have such strong and effective parliamentary select committees to overseas all levels of governmental structures, portfolios and services to ensure its competency, accountability and transparency?

Come on, this is a matter of public interests. Whatever the government of the day does must reflect the interests of our people. Covering up all those and using the Official Secrets Act (OSA) or Internal Security Act (ISA) to threatened any attempt of exposure or dissent would not do any good to the ruling party at all as it will cause more suspicion of power abuse and all kinds of mismanagement in the minds of our people. And this is what our people are thinking of, when the BN government is trying to cover up or make a black out on certain issues or matters that involves the public interests.

Therefore, how can you expect we believe in whatever you say or do? You are always trying to hide something. So do not always blame us because of such distrusts. The fault is yours!