Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar
KUCHING: Malaysia inherited the Westminster system from British colonial era and the Senate is not to be abolished just because the opposition has proposed so.
This notion came from Deputy Home Affairs Minister Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, who yesterday asserted that the Senate played a check-and-balance role in the country’s political system.
He said the Senate also offered a platform for the ethnic groups to be represented in Parliament.
He noted that many ethnic groups particularly those from Sarawak and Sabah did not have the means to be elected into Parliament, hence they could book a place in Parliament through senatorship.
“In Sarawak, we have 43 ethnic groups while in Sabah, there are 40 ethnic groups. They can be represented in Parliament through the appointment of senator by prime minister and adopted by Yang Di-Pertuan Agong,” he told journalists after a PBB supreme council meeting at the party’s headquarters here.
DAP chairman Karpal Singh has recently suggested that the Senate should be abolished.
Wan Junaidi, also Santubong MP, said the Senate had to stay as it provided an avenue for the prime minister, who has the prerogative to appoint senators, to bring in talented individuals to serve the country.
He explained that some people had extraordinary skills in certain fields or professions, but might lack the means to contest in elections.
These gifted people could be appointed as senators to play a part in bringing the country’s development to a new height, he said.
Hence, he felt that the opposition should not just come up with the abolition idea without taking a good look at the history and political system of the country.
Sarawakian Datuk Seri Idris Jala, who is an Orang Ulu, was appointed as a senator by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak after the general election in 2008 and named Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.
Idris has been heading the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) until the Parliament was dissolved on April 6.
After the Barisan Nasional was returned to power on May 5, Najib once again included Idris in his new cabinet line-up.
Idris remains Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.