Dewan Rakyat Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia yesterday told the opposition to explain why it had yet to set up a shadow cabinet, saying that such an entity could save time in Parliament.
He said a lot of time in the lower house was wasted with MPs repeating questions which their colleagues had already asked in their absence. A shadow cabinet would see just one representative from the opposition asking about one particular topic, saving the Dewan Rakyat a lot of time.
“Why can't you form that (shadow cabinet)? It is part of democracy. Why don't they look at themselves? I have done the reforms they want. Why can't they do certain reforms themselves?” Pandikar said at a press conference in Parliament.
He was referring to the parliamentary reforms he had proposed last year, which he said would be tabled during the current session. Pandikar said the reforms in Parliament would only be successful if MPs behaved themselves.
Instead, many MPs spent hours delivering a speech that could have been shortened to under 60 minutes, he said.
And true indeed, Pandikar's statement gained fast response from several opposition lawmakers who said they were agreeable to a shadow Cabinet proposal but told the Speaker that this would only be workable if Parliament offered them sufficient resources.
DAP’s Anthony Loke said total transformation of the current system was necessary, noting that in the UK Parliament, for example, resources are allocated to the opposition for the formation of the shadow Cabinet.
“If he really serious about forming shadow cabinet, my question to them is - what kind of resources (are) they going to give us? In UK, there are resources provided for the opposition to have a shadow Cabinet,” the Seremban MP told Malay Mail Online.
Parti Amanah Negara’s Mohamed Hanipa Maidin echoed Loke’s remarks and said he too welcomed Pandikar’s suggestion but only if reforms to the parliamentary system were introduced to ensure the opposition is treated equally in the lawmaking House.
“That is a good suggestion, we more than welcome it. But there has to be systematic changes so we can have an equal platform to function,” he told Malay Mail Online.
The Sepang MP also noted that the opposition already has its own form of a shadow Cabinet but has never been given the necessary resources to perform its duties.
PKR’s Batu MP Chua Tian Chang said the question of the shadow Cabinet should not arise at all because the government should first look to improving the Dewan Rakyat institution as a whole.
“It is nothing to do with parliamentary reform. The whole Parliament issue has nothing to do with shadow cabinet,” he said, adding that the opposition already has its own lawmakers tasked with handling different ministerial portfolios.
NOTE:The opposition, I think, should practice more shadow dancing and shadow boxing. Now that they have Tun Dr Mahathir and some Umno 'political dropouts' on board, they can start charting...