Dr Kelvin Yii
KUCHING (July 6): The reconvening of Parliament this July 26 ought to allow members of Parliament (MPs) to debate on the country’s Covid-19 situation and the Emergency Ordinance 2021, said Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii.
While welcoming the reconvening of Parliament, he said all MPs should be allowed to bring forth their input and debate on policies to keep the government accountable and to provide certain checks and balance on parliamentary oversight.
“I feel that there should be two main agendas for this Parliamentary sitting, namely that MPs should be allowed to debate on the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the Emergency Ordinance.
“Without these two main agendas, I believe that this sitting is merely cosmetic and superficial,” he told The Borneo Post when contacted.
He said the most critical and pertinent matter the Parliament needs to address is the issue on Covid-19.
“This is a multi-factorial problem which involves the economy, health, education and so on.
“The people are suffering right now and we MPs should be allowed to bring the voices of the people to the Parliament to debate and pressure the government to respond,” he said.
He said if the five-day proceeding was merely to have a briefing simply for the sake of appeasing public pressure to reconvene the Parliament, the sitting is therefore purely cosmetic in nature.
“It is superficial and defeats its purpose,” he added.
After months of public and Palace pressure, the Prime Minister’s Office in a statement yesterday announced that the Parliament will sit for five days, with the Dewan Rakyat proceedings taking place from July 26 to 29 and August 2 while the Senate will sit for three days from August 3 to 5.
It said the special sitting will be to explain to members about the National Recovery Plan and amend all laws and regulations to allow for a hybrid proceeding to be held.