FEBRUARY 18 — I refer to the letter written by Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, Deputy Speaker and Member of Parliament for Pengerang to the Attorney General. She suggests that the current Cabinet be suspended and replaced by a Special Emergency Cabinet and the establishment of a Bipartisan Special Parliamentary Committee comprising of Government and Opposition MPs. She says these proposals will provide a form of enforcing ministerial responsibility to the legislature and the necessary “checks and balances.”
While I agree with the Deputy Speaker that it is part of the basic structure of the Constitution for the Executive to be collectively accountable to Parliament, I am of the opinion that instead of having a Special Emergency Cabinet and a Bipartisan Special Parliamentary Committee, the better approach is to remove Sections 14 and 15 of the Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance 2021.
These two sections removed the accountability of the Executive to Parliament by suspending Parliament and the State Assemblies during the period of the Emergency.
It is totally unnecessary, irrational, unreasonable and disproportionate to suspend Parliament and the State Assemblies during the Covid-19 pandemic. No other country affected by the Covid-19 pandemic has suspended its Parliament. There is no sound justification for the suspension or removal of rights and democratic institutions to deal with the pandemic.
The Covid-19 pandemic should not be used as an excuse for preventing Parliament and the State Assemblies from carrying out their constitutional responsibilities and holding the Executive to public account.
I call on the Prime Minister and the Cabinet to advice the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to repeal Sections 14 and 15 of the Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance so as not to frustrate the basic operations of the nation’s constitutional democracy. Using a public health emergency to justify the suspension of democratic controls of governance is not the response of a democratic government. It is the hall mark of a dictatorship.
* William Leong Jee Keen is the MP for Selayang.
** This is the personal opinion of the writer or organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
