KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 26 — Malaysia needs to have a way to impeach a sitting prime minister in the event of grave misdeeds, Senate president Tan Sri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said.

The former de facto law minister, who is now Dewan Negara Speaker, told The Star in an interview published today that the procedures should be laid out clearly even if they might not be used.

"I have already discussed with my officers on how the impeachment procedure is going to be like but I’m not going to disclose it for now, I’m going to discuss with the AGC,” he was quoted as saying, using the abbreviation for the Attorney General’s Chambers.

"I have discussed with Tan Sri Johari and the prime minister has already been informed. The detailed procedure is yet to be drafted.

"We must be up-to-date with our law. The question whether it’ll be used or not is another story,” he added.

He said that even in England, the process for impeachment proceedings had been in place as far back as the 1880s, even though it was not used until 2004.

"At that time, they couldn’t complete it because they couldn’t satisfy all the requirements. But the procedure must be there,” he was quoted as saying.

Among a laundry list of parliamentary reform measures Wan Junaidi said measures for a confidence vote against the prime minister also need updating.

"I am going to draft the rules that will allow the vote of no confidence to be made. I want to introduce a provision so that it can be tabled with just 24 hours’ notice by the Opposition leader,” he was quoted as saying.

He said that to prevent potential abuse, the Dewan Rakyat Speaker should still have the discretion to decide whether or not the motion should be tabled.

"The Speaker can make a judgment and ask ‘how could you table this last month and now you want to table it again tomorrow?’ The Speaker’s decision will be final,” he was quoted as saying.

He said the Dewan Rakyat Speaker should not have the power to simply reject the first no-confidence vote.

The former Santubong MP also mooted amending the current rules that will enable the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to call for Parliament to convene instead of relying on doing so on the prime minister’s advice.

"I want to create a procedure in the Standing Orders to say that, as and when His Majesty decrees for Parliament to meet, the palace will send a letter to the Speaker and the Speaker will inform the Prime Minister. Note here that I said ‘inform’, not to get consent,” Wan Junaidi was quoted as saying.

The Malaysian Parliament sits three times a year, usually in April, July and October.

For it to sit at any other time, the prime minister must call for it.