KUALA LUMPUR – Parliamentary proceedings have become toxic over the years, making it difficult to implement internal reforms, said Tan Sri Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof, as he revealed some of the challenges he faced when presiding over the lower house.
Speaking at a forum on his new book, Parliament, Unexpected, the appellate judge noted how the cultural underpinnings of what makes a good Parliament have been lost over time.
“To me, the biggest problem (when it comes to reforms) is the Parliament culture. I tried to change bits of it, but didn’t fully succeed, because of the toxic nature of the proceedings.
“It’s not to say (the culture) was never present. It was during the initial phases. In the very early days of Parliament, MPs had behaved well, despite all the debates.
“But it later evolved into something akin to a pasar malam (night market),” he said last night.
Seeing this, Ariff said he had implemented some measures to ease the toxicity during his two-year stint as speaker, notably by forming parliamentary special select committees (PSSCs).
This did not come plain sailing, he revealed, saying some persuasion had to be done to get the then Pakatan Harapan (PH) cabinet on board.
“I tried to make sure the politicians understand the need to have a strong committee system. After two years, I have set up 10 PSSCs.
“But after the Sheraton Move, Perikatan Nasional came in and reversed everything we have worked for. We will have to start again from scratch.”
Ariff said many more reforms could have been implemented then, had it not been for the change of government.
PH collapse derailed parliamentary reforms
Commenting on the same matter, DAP’s Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh disclosed that prior to the collapse of the PH government, it had drafted several bills to be tabled in Parliament, including ones to empower the PSSCs to hold public hearings.
However, the unceremonious removal of Ariff as speaker in July, who was then replaced by Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun, had thrown a spanner in the works.
“This has been something I want the bipartisan committee between the government and PH to include in their memorandum of understanding,” she said at the same event.
Yeoh went on to highlight some of the key changes that had been instituted by Ariff during his time as the speaker, in a bid to instil fear in the executive bench.
Among others, she said, he had allowed MPs to ask more than three supplementary questions to ministers during question-and-answer time on important issues.
“This created fear among the ministers that they must be prepared when coming to Parliament. It’s different now. The speaker just stops after two supplementary questions.”
She added that Ariff had also introduced a Prime Minister’s Question Time session, compelling the head of government to present himself in the house to take questions from lawmakers. – The Vibes, May 20, 2022
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