Well done, Senate - leading Dewan Rakyat first time in 46-year history!

The Dewan Negara House Committee will be meeting tomorrow , Friday, 14th October 2005 at 11 am to discuss the double crisis of parliamentary autonomy and independence and the doctrine of the separation of powers between the Executive and Parliament, posed by the arbitrary Executive decision to impose a “Department of Parliament”, then “office”, then one post of “Parliament Head of Administration” on Parliament without any prior consultation with MPs, whether Dewan Rakyat or Dewan Negara.

As a result, both Houses of Parliament have been presented with a “fait accompli” by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz.

Well done Senate, for being ahead of and leading the House of Representatives (Dewan Rakyat) for the first time in the 46-year parliamentary history to protect the rights and privileges of Parliament from Executive erosion, encroachment and usurpation.

The Dewan Negara House Committee has put its counterpart in the Dewan Rakyat to shame, as the Dewan Rakyat House Committee is so insensitive and irresponsible that it has no plan as yet to convene an emergency meeting, despite repeated calls both inside and outside the House by both MPs from all sides of the House that it should meet to address the crisis of parliamentary independence and autonomy posed by the grave assault on the doctrine of separation of powers.

The House Committee of the Dewan Rakyat should not fall too far behind the Dewan Negara House Committee and should set a date for an early meeting to deal with the hot parliamentary issues such as the creation of the post of “Parliament Head of Administration” and the revival of the Parliamentary Services Act to institutionalize the principle of parliamentary independence from the Executive.

The Dewan Negara House Committee is headed by the President of the Senate, Tan Sri Dr. Abdul Hamid Pawanteh, with four other Senators, namely Datuk Yaakob bin Haji Mohammad, Datuk Kalakau @ Kalakan bin Untol, Haji Hassan bin Haji Shukri and Lee Sing Chooi as members.

For the first time in Senate history, all eyes in the country, including those of elected MPs in the Dewan Rakyat, will be on the Dewan Negara.

Will the Dewan Negara House Committee be more bold, vigorous and assertive than the Dewan Rakyat House Committee in addressing “all matters connected with the comfort and convenience of and services and amenities available to MPs”, particularly in protecting the rights and privileges of MPs from usurpation of parliamentary powers and functions by the Executive?

Let us all await the outcome of the historic meeting of the Senate House Committee tomorrow, hoping that it will come out with an outcome equally historic.