A New Low In Parliamentary Democracy On Day 1 Says Rafidah

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Rafidah Aziz says MPs who have a sense of responsibility ‘must really be up in arms’.PETALING JAYA: The first day of the special five-day parliamentary sitting represented an unprecedented low point in Malaysia’s democracy, former international trade and industry minister Rafidah Aziz said.
Between the secrecy behind the revoked emergency ordinances, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s failure to appear for questioning in the afternoon session and the absence of voting, she said, the government had ignored the fundamental processes that dictate the country’s democracy.
“I think when you just ignore the parliamentary processes, not going back to the parliament to get the authorisation to do a thing like the emergency or revoking the emergency ordinances, how low can you go?
“This is the lowest I can personally tolerate, and many of us can tolerate, and the MPs who have a sense of responsibility to the nation and the people who voted them in must be really up in arms,” she told FMT.
Rafidah said Muhyiddin not being available to answer questions was “totally unethical and irresponsible”, and unique to Malaysia, with prime ministers from other Westminster-based democracies making themselves accountable before elected representatives.
“Is he shirking responsibility, is he unable to answer, or is there no answer he could offer to the rakyat? That’s all I can surmise, what else can I say, he can’t have another stomachache or diarrhoea again.”
Without any votes allowed during the sitting, she said, the term “parliament sitting” had become “very literal”.
“This is a parliament sitting, they just sit on their bottoms. A real sitting, sitting. I’m sorry, I’m very cynical now.
“You don’t want a parliament sitting only to get the MPs to sit and hear you pontificate about this and that. Please, there is no time, we are in a crisis.”
Come forward if you knew about the revocation
On the revocation of the emergency ordinances, announced by law minister Takiyuddin Hassan to the surprise of many MPs and the public, Rafidah urged those who knew about it to come forward.
“If they have any backbone, and any fibre of honesty and integrity in them, they will.
“This is about the blatant erosion of the very foundation upon which this country was built,” she said, adding that it should instead be put to vote among MPs.
She said those who failed to take a stand against the government acting behind closed doors would be punished at the ballot box come election time.
“Your allegiance is to the people, you are the people’s representatives. You violate this at your expense, and you suffer the consequence later on when the votes come in, from the public, not parliamentary votes,” she said. - FMT

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