Why are M’sian MPs so bored?

By Sim Kwang Yang

WHEN the Malaysian Mirror invited me to be one of their columnists, I was more than delighted.

A writer like me with such an “anti-government” past would never get such an invitation from the mainstream media of course. I used to write a column for the independent Chinese-language Nanyang Siang Pau until 2003 when the MCA bought this established newspaper. Then I was told apologetically that my service was no longer required.

The Malaysian Mirror is another news portal, the new kid on the block, among the rank of the Fifth Estate trying to subvert the monopoly of the Malaysian public sphere of the failed Fourth Estate of the mainstream media. As with other news portals, the Malaysian Mirror will probably grant me unbridled freedom, which is any critical writer’s dream. Seasoned writers like me will not abuse our freedom of expression, wantonly. We have enough rough knowledge of the relevant laws to stay away from unnecessary trouble. We have to protect the interests of our publisher, too. This is my 1st article in Malaysian Mirror.

We were told recently that the Dewan Rakyat had problems getting quorum again. The bell had to be rung to entice ministers and MPs from the corridors and the café to go back to the chamber to make up the numbers.

This is an old problem. Ministers and MPs themselves are bored with the proceeding in the house. They are not interested in the bills and other business being debated, and they do not like to listen to other MPs talking.

Barisan Nasional MPs sometimes blame the opposition legislators for not helping out with making the quorum, and the opposition MPs will retort that according to parliamentary conventions, it is the responsibility of the ruling party to ensure that there is always quorum in the house.

Parliament sessions are boring

I was MP for Bandar Kuching in Sarawak from 1982 and 1995. During those years, whenever Parliament was in session, I would make it an effort to attend the meeting of the Dewan Rakyat everyday.

Contrary to common perception, parliament meetings were, and must still be, extremely boring.

The only excitement that could be generated was in the first hour of the daily meeting, during the oral question time. There, when the time for supplementary questions arrived, you could get the rare opportunity for spontaneous off-the-cuff exchange between the MP and the minister.

Sometime in the early 1980s, the Speaker ruled that reading from prepared text was to be allowed.

When the debate for the bills began, MPs would just stand up and read their prepared text like a robot. (I seldom had a prepared text to read out.) Summing up the debate before the vote, the minister or his deputy would also read out his prepared text like a tape recorder. One gets the impression that even a village idiot can be an MP or a minister, as long as he can read.

The standing order makes provisions for any MP to seek clarification from another MP when the latter is making his speech. He can also seek permission from the minister during his summing up. But MPs and ministers are so fearful of a real debate that as a rule they declined to give permission to be interrupted.

Therefore, you practically never have any debate in the house. You only get a series of long droning boring monotonous monologues and soliloquies that drove everybody in the house to sleep. That is why most of the ministers and MPs sauntered out in search of more pleasant pastime like socialising in the corridors and cafes.

The Speaker can make a start to keep the MPs in the chamber by banning the blind reading of prepared text in the house. But even that may not solve the problem of anaemic quorum in the house.

The Parliament is the symbol of the sovereignty of the people. It is supposed to be the highest political forum of the land, expressing the general will of the people. In that august hall and over-cooled chamber on Parliament Hill, the amorphous diverse collective voice of the people is supposed to be heard.

But we are still a developing democracy. Our Parliament is still torn by incurable partisan schism.

Maximum bills in minimum time

For the ruling BN coalition, the Parliament is an inconvenience to be overcome, a place for government legislations to be passed as quickly as possible. The Speaker’s office is beholden to the prime minister acting as the House majority leader. His job is to expedite the passage of the maximum number of bills in the minimum of time.

With that unwritten assumption in mind, all MPs know that speeches are actually extraneous to Parliament proceedings.

During the pre-council meetings before Parliament starts, MPs will be told by their party chiefs to attack the opposite side whenever they can. The speeches they make are to score political points, and have very little to do with the general will of the people. Those who stand out demeaning their opponents across the floor will catch the eyes of the party elders and stand a chance for promotion in the party inside and outside the House.

The opposition MPs know about this unwritten assumption of the BN government also. No matter what great speeches they make in the name of all Malaysians, they would be talking to a blank wall.

There are those opposition MPs who truly raise problems within their constituency. More often than not, they use the occasion to try to embarrass and even humiliate the BN government, and specific ministers, in the hope of raising a shouting match that would scream across the headlines in the newspapers the next day.

Here, the media cannot run away from their responsibility partly for the moribund state of our Parliament.

Most reporters sent to cover Parliament proceedings are junior journalists who are generally clueless about Parliament conventions, House Standing Order, and the numerous complex and abstract bills tabled before the house.

They would also wait for a copy of the prepared text of MPs and ministers; they are not interested in impromptu off-the-cuff speeches, because it will take too much work to write those stories.

Naturally, they too are aware of the unwritten assumption of the Parliament being used as a rubber stamp for the ruling parties. No matter how conscientiously they want to report on Parliament, their editors in the mainstream media will not let them.

What interest the reporters the most are the verbal scuffles that break out once in a while, because such occurrence of verbal violence makes for perfect materials for headline stories. This gives the readers the mistaken impression that the Parliament is a rowdy place, when in fact it is a very sleep-inducing arena.

Not many really care

Finally, the Malaysian public are also quite superficial in their political judgement. They prefer to leave politics to the professional politicians while they pursue their daily business of making a living and rejoicing in their family.

How many Malaysians have ever demanded to know about the impact on their life of all those numerous bills being passed in Parliament every year? How many of our citizens would approach their MP to express their opinion on any bill that is going to be tabled soon in Parliament?

Is it any wonder that our Parliament remains in its infantile stage, and MPs continue to be completely indifferent to what really is going on in the meeting chamber?

SIM KWANG YANG was Bandar Kuching MP from 1982 to 1995, He can be reached atkenyalang578@hotmail.com

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