KOTA KINABALU – Five Sabah opposition reps are proposing that the state assembly emulate the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the government and Pakatan Harapan (PH), underlining seven reforms for the state.
In a statement today, DAP’s Luyang assemblyman, who is also the state’s PH Youth chief, Phoong Jin Zhe said that the reps have met Speaker Datuk Kadzim M. Yahya to propose several reform agendas today.
Phoong said in line with the parliamentary reforms, the lawmakers believe an assembly reforms should also be implemented in the Sabah assembly.
“In our view, there are several important reform agendas that we would like to bring up to the attention of the speaker and we hope that it can be implemented.
“This is to allow the state assembly to truly adopt the Westminster system and empower more state assemblymen to perform their duties better,” he said.
The seven reform agendas proposed are:
- The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) should be chaired by an opposition assemblyman to uphold transparency, accountability and democracy;
- The state assembly should establish Special Select Committees, such as on health, finance and economy, infrastructure development, security, agriculture, gender equality and others to allow healthier engagements and ensure checks and balances;
- The state assembly should also consider providing allowances for state assemblymen’s staff to allow state assemblymen to run research and perform better in forms of debating with data, research and references;
- The state assembly should also set up a minister’s question time (MQT) session to allow reps to inquire about urgent matters directly to the minister holding the particular portfolio;
- The state assembly should establish a second chamber (kamar khas) to provide a platform for assemblymen to debate on a specific topics with ministers in charge;
- All bills should be debated through a committee stage, especially the supply bill (budget) to ensure the details of the bills are thoroughly debated; and,
- Extend the state assembly sitting to at least 30 days annually to ensure that the people’s concerns can be truly brought up and no constituencies are sidelined due to insufficient time.
Present in the meeting with the speaker was Upko’s Kadamaian assemblyman Datuk Ewon Benedict and three other DAP reps – Jannie Lasimbang (Kapayan), Tan Lee Fatt (Likas) and Justin Wong (Sri Tanjong).
Phoong said the meeting went smoothly and that their proposals would be looked into.
They also urged for the speaker to digitalise state assembly affairs, such as allowing meeting agendas and Hansards to be easily viewed and downloaded online. – The Vibes, September 20, 2021
