Rafidah to boycott Pak Lah’s 2006 Budget tomorrow?

“Where is the MITI Minister? I understand she returned from Vientianne this morning. The Cabinet yesterday directed her to attend Parliament as soon as possible to explain the APs scandal. Why is she not here yet?”

I posed these questions during the debate on the Constitution Amendment Bill (No. 2) today, when Rafidah Aziz did not appear in Parliament. According to Rafidah’s official programme, she is not to report back for duty until Oct. 1. Does this mean that Rafidah will boycott Pak Lah’s 2006 Budget presentation in Parlliament tomorrow, Friday, 30th September 2005?

In Vientiane for the Asean Economic Ministers’ meeting, Rafidah said yesterday: “I came here for work. As you can see I’m doing my work. I’m worried if the ministers are not able to make any decision here, it could affect thd Asean Summit in December and affect our image as the host.”

On her rare appearances in Parliament, Rafidah said she had to be away from the country several times this year, seven times on visits with the Prime Minister and 10 times on trade mission.

This prompted me to make two observations in Parliament:

Firstly, her official functions abroad should be matched with the parliamentary schedule to ascertain whether they justified her abysmally low parliamentary attendance record.

I gave further particulars of her dismal attendance in Parliament:

Total Parliamentary sittings Rafidah’s attendance

2000 79 days 2 days
2001 71 days 5 days
2002 64 days 2 days
2003 67 days 6 days
2004 63 days 2 days
2005 45 days so far 2 days

Secondly, putting aside overseas functions which are outside her power to decide on the dates, why couldn’t Rafidah arrange her missions abroad to minimise or avoid altogether clashes with the parliamentary time-table which are circulated to Ministers more than a year in advance.

I deplored the attempt to put the whole blame of the controversial APs’ MP list in response to my question Tuesday last week on a MITI officer. It is just bad taste that the Minister is now joined by the Deputy Minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah and Parliamentary Secretary Dr. Tan Yee Kew in loudly proclaiming their innocence and ignorance of the APs MPs list beforehand.

I told MPs that in countries like Japan which Malaysians had once been exhorted to “Look East”, a Minister who had created the sort of national controversy like the APs scandal would have committed hara kiri to accept personal responsibility. But in Malaysia, the government officer is supposed to commit hara kiri.

In other countries where a government officer makes a mistake, the Minister concerned would assume full personal responsibility. But in Malaysia, where a Minister had made a mistake, a government servant is required to accept responsibility.

I lamented the falling standards of front-bench responsibility where Ministers, Deputy Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries could disclaim responsibility and pass the blame to government servants if their answers, speeches and explanations run afoul. This makes complete nonsense of the principle of Ministerial responsibility.

I asked for the name of the MITI officer who allegedly released the MPs’ AP list without authority akin to sabotage, for I said he or she should be commended and even promoted instead of being made to be the “fall guy” to bail out Rafidah, Husni and Tan Yee Kew.

Press reports that I had never asked for the MPs’ AP list are wrong. But this is not the only thing that I asked – I wanted the full list of MPs allocated APs way back to 1997 (and not just from 2000), individual, Open and Franchise APs going back to 1987.

Note: I have asked the Polls Master to continue the corruption poll until Monday so that a full week’s poll results could be reported to Parliament on Monday