Parliamentary select committee versus shadow cabinet
One may question why do we really need the parliamentary select committees, when the BN already has the shadow cabinet in place to provide checks on the current Pakatan Harapan (PH) government.
The reality here is there are vast difference between having parliamentary select committees and the shadow cabinet. In UK, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland, parliamentary select committees exist concurrently with shadow cabinets of the opposition front bench, while in US, there is no shadow cabinet, but with the existence of powerful congressional and senate committees has indeed provide the most effective check and balance against the government’s activities.
The parliamentary select committees are committees set up within the parliamentary framework consist of members of parliament from both side of the political divide. These select committees may be chaired by an opposition MP or the government MP, depending on the composition of the select committee members and the expertise of those MPs.
The parliamentary select committees are appointed to oversee, provide checks and to scrutinise on the day-to-day affairs of government ministries, senior public appointments, budgets and to organise inquiries into policy implementations, cases involving wrongdoings within the civil service and they are empowered to call for public or close door hearings any ministers, deputy ministers, senior civil servants and directors of government-linked-companies (GLCs) pertaining to their activities within the government.
MPs from both side of the political divide serving in these parliamentary select committees perform their roles and responsibilities above party politics, serve in the manner that the public and nation’s interests should be above their political inspiration or ideologies. That is, the major purpose of these parliamentary select committees is to ensure the government and its administration functions in accordance to the rule and law, be transparent in whatsoever transactions, policy implementations and expenditures in the interest of our people and the nation.
The scope and responsibilities of these parliamentary select committees are much wider as compare to that of the shadow cabinet.
The establishment of the shadow cabinet by the opposition front bench do also have its importance in the essence that these opposition leaders would readied themselves to be the government-in-waiting, develop and provide alternative public policies, debate policy implementations, provide scrutiny on ministries and departmental activities and budgets.
In other words, opposition front benchers in a form of shadow cabinet serve at the pleasure of the opposition party or coalition, promote the interests of the party and coalition as an effective alternative to that of the ruling party or coalition of the day.
Empowering the select committees
The parliamentary caucus on reform and governance under the chairmanship of Anwar Ibrahim should come up with a mechanism to empower the parliamentary select committees to the best in order to provide the most effective checks and balance on the current government, the ministers and their senior civil servants
If the federal constitution cannot be amended due to short of a two-thirds majority on the government’s side, then they should alternatively enact laws to empower all these parliamentary select committees with wider roles, powers, resources and funding to carry out their roles and responsibilities effectively.
Such laws should also empower parliamentary select committees to impose penalties or fines on those who refuse to cooperate in the manner of inquiries, attending to committee hearings or providing documentary evidence, reports for scrutiny.
Anwar should realise the fact that the recent senior public appointments made by the prime minister had bypassed the parliamentary select committee on major public appointments reasoning that these position needed to be filled urgently. Such urgency, though required, should at least have the parliamentary select committee assigned to such portfolio, informed prior to its announcement but it was not carried out due to some “technical issues” at the prime minister’s office.
In this case, we could see the ineffectiveness of the current parliamentary select committees to demand scrutiny prior to official implementation or appointments due to the absence of laws that could empower these select committees to act against government actions that they may see unfit or unsuitable to be implemented and cannot be endorsed.
Parliamentary reforms and its select committees will be useless unless there are laws to protect and empower such to checks and balance on the administration.
