JULY 7 — The forthcoming five-day sitting of Dewan Rakyat may indeed be too short, as said by the Pakatan Harapan (PH) presidential council.
What with the Proclamation of Emergency and seven Emergency Ordinances to be laid before the Dewan Rakyat.
Former prime minister Najib Razak allocated two days just for the Dewan Rakyat to debate the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) in 2016. The National Recovery Plan (NRP) itself will be like the TPPA, if not more important.
The government then has to lay or table the Proclamation of Emergency and Emergency Ordinances.
As I have earlier written, when Parliament was convened in 1971 — 21 months after the 1969 proclamation of Emergency — the provisions in some of the Emergency ordinances that were promulgated during the Emergency rule, were presented to the Dewan Rakyat in different and separate Bills of Parliament.
Let’s look at an example. The Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance No. 17 of 1970 was promulgated on Jan 6, 1970 to amend sections 15 and 29 of the Financial Procedure Ordinance 1957.
It was presented to the Dewan Rakyat as the Financial Procedure (Amendment) Bill 1971. The Hansard may be seen here, at page 1348 on the Bill’s second reading.
If the Emergency laws are to be made into laws passed by Parliament, Parliament must exercise its legislative power as mandated by Article 66 (on Legislative Procedure) as well as in accordance with the Standing Orders (Nos. 48, 53 and 61 on First, Second and Third Readings respectively).
So, there is no turning away from parliamentary debates on the Emergency Ordinances. Debates are a must, as said by the PH presidential council.
Five days may be just too short for three readings of the Bills.
*This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
