Kulai MP, Teo Nie Ching, recently called out the double standards between the rakyat and MPs after the issue of limiting Dewan Rakyat sessions to four hours arose.
“If the rakyat can work for eight hours, how come we are not doing the same? We are meant to serve the people but we come here for Parliament sessions and work four hours a day but receive an allowance for the whole day,” said Teo during the session which took place on 22 November.
She went on to say that this reflected badly on them as Members of the Parliament. “If we say that people cannot work for more than four hours a day, the same principles should extend to the rest of the rakyat as well”.
This comes in response to Kota Bahru MP, Takiyuddin Hassan’s explanation that the Dewan Rakyat sessions were limited to protect the MPs health based on advice from KKM, “As much as I would like to listen to the discussion of ministers and MPs, we have constraints, this is not an excuse. KKM has already said that longer parliament sessions are riskier. Every minister is stressed when they hear that they only have 20 minutes to present their points, but these are the rules.”
Nonetheless, other MPs such as Jelutong and Port Dickson also commented on how more time should be given for MPs to discuss, reject or recommend courses of action as this is the function of the Dewan Rakyat instead of reading about the motions they would like to put forward from a script.
The Kota Bahru MP responded by saying that it was not his advice but rather the recommendation of the Health-Director General to limit the time sessions of these parliament proceedings to minimise the risk of infecting others. “If we don’t listen to KKM, who else are we going to listen to?”
What do you guys think of this?
