Politik, Legislatif, Dasar dan Tadbir Urus

Last year, the Dewan Rakyat Speaker, Mohamad Arif Md Yusof had announced the establishment of six new parliamentary select committees in order to provide oversight on the federal government's budget, appointments and other activities. The six subject areas are: Consideration of Bills, Budget, Home and Defence, Rights and Gender Equality, Federal-State Relations, and, Major Public Appointments. In the beginning of this year, the speaker had also informed the public that more select committees will also be established in the next sitting which has already begun.  However, we have not seen any of these select committees commencing their responsibilities right after the establishments were announced last year. We wonder if the MPs who are sitting in these select committees know exactly what they should kick start, when and where or are they really aware of what are their oversight activities they should undertake. The Public Service Department and Finance Ministry has b...

This article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 13/12/2013 Leaders who are contesting in the MCA election on Dec 21 are intensifying their campaigns as the polls draw nearer. The big question is whether those elected will be able to revamp the party and turn its fortunes around. I doubt it because most of the candidates are old faces who have been around since 2008, when MCA suffered a major electoral setback. In aftermath of the 13th general election last May which saw MCA suffering its worst ever defeat, a group of young reformists formed the New Movement in the party. The New Movement unveiled an action plan outlining the need for the party to implement a direct election of party leaders and to allow party members to determine the electoral candidates. It also called for the re-registration of party members in order to determine the actual party members and the legitimacy of all its branches. Little-known Gurun state assemblyman Dr Leong Yong Kong has ...

This article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 5/11/2013 Since 2008, Barisan Nasional leaders have been openly challenging the opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, to reveal its shadow cabinet in Parliament. Some of these BN leaders also accused the opposition of disunity as it had failed to agree on the composition of members in the shadow cabinet among PKR, DAP and PAS. We all know that the institution of shadow cabinet is not recognised at all in our nation. Worst of all, opposition members of parliament are also not provided with annual allocations for their constituencies like their counterparts in BN. Instead, those funds are channelled to BN-appointed constituency coordinators, who are better known as “fake MPs” by our people. So, why are those BN leaders still harping on the shadow cabinet when they know this institution has not even been recognised by their own government and it was not supposed to exist in the first place?  According to BN, ou...

The Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission (EAIC) has already failed, even prior to its inception because they lack of the necessary funding and manpower to work out its roles and responsibilities for the public. Besides, having the EAIC directly under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister's Department (PMD) has in fact put the integrity commission in a way that it has been seen as not independent and has no power to act on its own because EAIC is only a sub-department under the PMD hierarchy. Apart from that, the  EAIC's oversight responsibilities covers about 19 different enforcement agencies nationwide, plus some sub-enforcement units within certain government departments and agencies. Asides, EAIC also did not possess the prosecuting and enforcement powers to enable the commission to demand for the hearing of a reported case and all the subjects of the integrity in question to be summoned for a case hearing session without fail. The other issue is, who will effec...

N.B. This article was earlier published in the Inter-Research And Studies (IRAS) website on 13th March 2013   Besides having the need to reform the entire government machinery in order to reflect its professionalism and making it into a service-oriented corporation, the Parliamentary System in this country ought to undergo the reform as well. As we can see, eventhough our country is practicing parliamentary democracy, our nation's parliament does not seem to be functioning as it was supposed to be. Yes, there are loopholes, a lot of loopholes in the current parliamentary system. People has been commenting that Malaysia is adopting a rubber-stamped parliamentary system which is only task to proposed and approve laws. Which means, the political parties who hold the majority number of seats in the parliament shall always be a winner and limited debates are only allowed in order to provide some "democratic avenue" to the Opposition bench to provide their views. This is ...

Most recently, the Felda Global Ventures Berhad (FGV) a subsidiary of the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) under the chairmanship of a convicted money politics culprit has dropped below the issuing price for the first time ever. Then, the prime minister who is also the Umno president Najib Razak announced strings  of benefits and cash rewards to the entire nation's Felda settlers worth billions of Ringgit in order to ease these settlers' dissatisfaction over the losses suffered by both FGV and Felda over these years. And while FGV and Felda has been suffering from such massive losses locally, they are now dreaming of wanting to do "big" investments in war torn regions, like Mindanao (The Philippines), Myanmar and Liberia, and some countries with unstable political and economic situations like Papua New Guinea, Cambodia and Cameroon. In this case, we would like to know what had actually happened to our money (in our retirement funds), when the Emplo...

Four months ago, the parliamentary select committee (PSC) on electoral reform under the chairmanship of Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili (BN-PBS) has made several recommendations to the Elections Commission (EC) to undertake reforms in its electoral system, management, electoral list clean up, postal balloting and so on. Reminders after reminders were very often heard of particularly from the general public, the opposition front and the coalition of NGOs who organized the previous two Bersih rallies. Today, the same reminder was made by an opposition  member of parliament Anthony Loke citing that the EC has yet to implement any of the recommendations forwarded by the PSC until today. So, what is wrong with EC? Before this, we do heard a few words from the EC chairman and deputy chairman respectively who demonstrated their arrogance by refusing public views and scrutiny onto the EC's entire electoral management system. Yes, they did gave in and announce several steps to implement som...

When Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim joined the DAP and later appointed as the party national vice-chairman in 2008, then appointed by the Penang state government as member of the senate representing the party, what has he done to uphold and support justice, equality, democracy and the non-ethnic approach which has been the principles and struggles of Pakatan Rakyat? Ever since Tunku Aziz was appointed DAP national vice-chairman and senator, he has been labelled as a "traitor" to the Malays for joining a "Chinese-based" party by ruling elites within the Barisan Nasional (BN) particularly the dominant Malay-based party, Umno. What has Tunku Aziz done to counter the bad effects by his detractors at that time? What has Tunku Aziz done in order to improve DAP's standing in the eyes of the Malay community during his tenure as the party's national vice-chairman? What has Tunku Aziz done to defend the party and Pakatan Rakyat from the racist attacks and threats from ...

Penang Gerakan legal and human rights bureau chairman Bajit Singh had called on Bersih 3.0 co-chairman Datuk S.Ambiga to clarify whether the Bersih 3.0 rally is at the behest of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat. Apart from that Penang Gerakan leader also proposed that the Bersih 3.0 steering committee should ban Pakatan top leaders from participating in the upcoming rally in order to proof that the coalition for electoral reforms was an independent and non-partisan movement seeking the improve the nation's democratic process. First of all, we would urge Baljit to stop confusing the entire situation which regards on the Bersih 3.0 rally. As Datuk Ambiga and the rest of the NGO leaders had mentioned, Bersih 3.0 is for all regardless of whether he or she is from Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat as long as the person believe in upholding the objectives of seeking a total electoral reform. Do not forget that Baljit had also publicly admitted that he had also personally par...

The report forwarded by the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Electoral Reforms was passed in such a hurry on 3 April 2012 recently. The report was earlier tabled by the PSC chairman and Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) deputy president Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili which consist of 22 recommendations. However, members of parliament especially from the opposition Pakatan Rakyat bench were not given sufficient time to review, debate and make amendments to all the 22 recommendations as the BN parliament speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia has decided to quickly invoke the standing order to put the PSC report to vote despite continuous plea from the Pakatan members of parliament to have more time for review, debates and propose some amendments to the report. Just what kind of parliamentary session is this? If these members of parliament were not given the most sufficient time to review, debate or to suggest any changes to the PSC report, it is just like there is no PSC at all. What ...

In a public hearing conducted by the parliamentary select committee (PSC) for electoral reforms recently, an MCA top representative delegated by the party president Dr Chua Soi Lek had deliberately informed the PSC that overseas Malaysians should not be allowed to vote via our nation's foreign missions and consulates because they are too dependent on the internet news reports. This means the MCA leadership are all against the proposal to allow these overseas Malaysians to vote in our general elections. And later that, MCA deputy president Liow Tiong Lai then added in to call on all overseas Malaysians to return and to serve this country if they really want back their voting rights. One point of Liow's statement that we need to scrutinize deeply. If MCA and Liow wanted these overseas Malaysians to return to this country and serve her as well, can MCA guarantee these "returning" Malaysians better positions, jobs and as well as a just and equatable treatment in all sect...

Well, Pakatan Rakyat which consist of PKR, PAS and DAP had just released their Shadow Budget for 2012 recently in order to counter the upcoming BN's election Budget which is scheduled to be tabled this coming Friday. As soon as Pakatan's shadow budget was released for public viewing, former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad without fully going into its contents, immediately condemned the opposition front's alternative budget as "empty pocket". It clearly demonstrates that Dr Mahathir's immediate condemnation of the opposition's effort was too childish. Being an elderly statesman and former premier of this country, he should have been observing his characteristic properly as a retired top leader instead of still continuing his role like a some sort of de facto prime minister stepping over the current premier Najib Razak. Pakatan's Shadow Budget 2012, although it is still shadowy, but it provides an alternative for the people in this country to view what the ...

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 havin...

The resentment in Gerakan is growing and its party members are beginning to question the leadership of Dr Koh Tsu Koon as party president as he had till today failed to outline any plans to revive the party badly defeated in the last general elections. "Dr Koh took up the senatorship and became a federal minister, but what has he done for the party so far?", ask a local party leader. By Humayun Kabir There is growing resentment among Gerakan members towards their president Koh Tsu Koon and an emergency general meeting may be called to remove him. Former party youth vice-chief S Paranjothy said several party leaders told him that Koh must be axed to save the sinking Gerakan. The Taman Ehsan branch chief claimed that the president was more interested in safeguarding his own political position in the federal government and had ignored the problems in the party. Paranjothi recalled how former party chief Dr Lim Keng Yaik had advised Koh to concentrate on building the party at the...

Former Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) supreme council member Zaid Ibrahim has been elected president of Angkatan Keadilan Insan Malaysia (Akim) during the party's annual general meeting today held in Petaling Jaya. After Zaid assumed the leadership of Akim, the party also decided to change its name to Parti Kesejahteraan Insan Tanah Air (Kita). Zaid took over the top post from Zakaria Salleh, who did not contest the seat. On last November, Zaid, who was contesting in the PKR's polls for the party deputy presidency for the 2010-2012 term, withdrew from the contest and quit the party citing the polls lacked transparency. Zaid, who submitted his membership application to Akim last month, said he would announce the party's new ideology and principles on January next year. The party, which was only for Muslims will also amend its constitution to be converted into a multiracial party, he added. Prior to joining PKR, Zaid was also former Umno supreme council member and had quit his ...

The Sarawak BN's lost in the Sibu parliamentary by-election is seen as a grieve setback to its component and participating party, the Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP). Until then, the leaders of SUPP had refused to concede defeat even at the final hour before the announcement of the results were out last night. Well the announcement has been made anyway and it said DAP had won and BN lost. The BN and SUPP leaders were disappointed, the deputy prime minister dumped the BN candidate Robert Lau and flew back to Putrajaya even before the results were known, because he already knew, the vote had already swing in favour of DAP. However, the BN leaders are still in a denial mode. They refused to accept the fact that their defeat shows that they are no longer "powerful" in Sarawak after decades of manipulation of the people's human rights there. The BN leaders in Sarawak denied that they had lost their ground, but instead blamed DAP and Pakatan Rakyat because they exp...