JANUARY 14 — Projek SAMA urges the Government to enact a Fixed Term Parliament Act (FTPA) in the upcoming parliamentary session in March. It welcomes the proposal made by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi on January 13 to enact a law to prevent mid-term change of government.
FTPA is both a manifesto promise of PH in GE15 and one of the reforms called for by 33 NGOs and 52 individuals in the 2024 new year message, initiated by Projek SAMA.
An FTPA will constrain the Prime Minister’s power in seeking royal consent for an early dissolution of parliament but leave completely untouched the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s power under Articles 40(2)(b) and 43(4) to withhold his consent. The King can still reject any request for early dissolution while the PM has to share the power to make such a request with fellow parliamentarians. This makes early elections harder.
The Madani Government should start public consultation now for an FTPA bill to be tabled and passed in the upcoming parliamentary sitting in March.
With an FTPA, the Parliament must serve its full term of 5 years, unless either of these circumstances occur:
1. The Prime Minister has lost the confidence of Parliament.
2. Two-third or more members of parliament pass a resolution to call for an early dissolution
With that, the Prime Minister cannot, at his whim and fancy, seek to dissolve the Parliament before its full term, unless he loses the power. The decision to seek royal consent must lie within the House to minimise political adventurism, to assure an inclusive and stable parliamentary democracy.
A key feature of an FTPA is that it can stop any move that hopes to overthrow a sitting government by collecting statutory declarations (SDs) from parliamentarians. An FTPA has to define what constitutes a loss of confidence.
The FTPA can limit “loss of confidence” to any of the following three circumstances:
1. The passing of a no-confidence motion.
2. The defeat of a confidence motion.
3. The defeat of a budget (supply Bill) in the second or third reading.
The abuse of SDs by using them as tools of destablisation is an exploitation of the Federal Constitution’s silence in Article 43 on the method in ascertaining Parliament’s confidence in Government or the loss thereof.
Projek SAMA opines that counting of SDs by parliamentarians is in an underhanded and undemocratic way of forming and dismissing governments.
Any formation or dismissal of government should happen by way of confidence and supply votes on the floor of the Dewan Rakyat where MPs can cast their votes openly. This is where an FTPA can close this gap without contradicting or need for amending the Federal Constitution.
In relation to government formation, Projek SAMA and the 2024 New Year Message also call for a confirmatory vote of confidence soon after the appointment of every new Prime Minister. Both reforms should also be introduced in all states.
With an FTPA, the Government will not be distracted by operations like the Dubai Move. Not just the Government, civil society, businesses and every Malaysian can plan their work and events for the next four years, if the 15th Parliament will dissolve automatically on 18 December 2027 and GE16 can be expected to take place around February 2028.
Fixed electoral calendars are not only a feature in presidential and semi-presidential democracies like Indonesia and Taiwan, but are also increasingly popular in parliamentary democracies such as Norway, Sweden and states in Australia.
It is time for Malaysia to do the same to affirm stability and accountability.
* Project - Stability and Accountability for Malaysia (Projek SAMA) is an initiative to advocate for institutional reforms to bring about political stability and accountability at a time when our nation steers through the uncharted waters of hung parliament and coalition governments. In Malaysia, we share the common (sama) destiny. Ngeow Chow Ying serves as its convenor.
** This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
