FEBRUARY 28 — Opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin has been reported by Malaysiakini to have mocked Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said for her statement that the Parliamentary Service Bill 2025 is the “mother of all reforms”.

According to Hamzah, such a Bill was already discussed during former Dewan Rakyat speaker Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun’s tenure.

He said that he was informed by Azhar that some 70 per cent of Parliament staff disagreed with such a Bill which, among others, would allow Parliament to recruit its own staff.

“When he (Azhar) met and discussed this with Parliament staff and officers, 70 per cent of them did not agree.

“If you want to do something for the benefit of staff, it’s not this way. We need to look at their futures too,” he told a press conference at the Parliament media centre here yesterday.

“If this is the start of a new era, our future will be ruined. How can you consider this the mother of all reforms?” he said.

Hamzah asked for the Bill to be sent for further review and not be bulldozed.

Let’s briefly look at the Bill. It is in six parts with 19 Clauses. The Clauses will be known as Sections when the Bill is passed by Parliament as an Act of Parliament.

Part I deals with the preliminary matters. Part II makes provisions relating to the Parliamentary Service and the Parliamentary Service Council.

Part III has provisions relating to the Clerk to the Senate and the Clerk to the House of Representatives.

Part IV deals with the provisions relating to the establishment of committees under the Parliamentary Service.

Part V makes provisions relating to the administration and finance of the Parliamentary Service. Part VI deals with general provisions.

By comparison, the Parliamentary Service Act 1963 (Act 394), which was repealed in November 1993 by Section 7(d) of the Constitution (Amendment) Act 1992 (Act A837), had only 18 Sections.

Since then, there has been no independent body or mechanism responsible for setting and administering MPs’ pay and pensions, independently of both Parliament and Government.

The remuneration, benefits and other statutory entitlements of legislators are subjected to the Members of Parliament (Remuneration) Act 1980 (Act 237).

The detailed provisions of the Bill are available here.

Hamzah may have overlooked that the Bill is comparable to the 6-part Model Law for Independent Parliaments. The Model Law has been developed by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) with expert and experienced input from leading Commonwealth legislative drafters and Parliamentary Clerks.

Since its establishment in 1911, the CPA has sought to strengthen parliamentary institutions to enable them to fulfil their democratic mandate, specifically to hold the Executive to account.

The Model Law is a template for Parliaments to replicate and modify to meet their specific needs and context. (See “Helping Parliaments to gain greater independence – CPA launches its Model Law”)

The drafters of the Bill have done their part.

Whether the Bill is the mother of all reforms or otherwise, our MPs must rise above politics, make the Dewan Rakyat a ‘great scene of debate’ and not ‘an arena in which the rival parties fight their wordy battles’. ― Bernama pic
Whether the Bill is the mother of all reforms or otherwise, our MPs must rise above politics, make the Dewan Rakyat a ‘great scene of debate’ and not ‘an arena in which the rival parties fight their wordy battles’. ― Bernama pic

Let the MPs now rise up to their duties during the second reading of the Bill scheduled on March 4.

The second reading of a Bill is where the most substantial debate on the proposed law takes place. Its purpose is to consider the principles of the Bill, the reasons why the Bill should be supported or opposed, the necessity for the proposed law, or alternative means of achieving the same objectives.

Speeches at the second reading are often used in legal research to understand the motivation or purpose of a Bill and are useful as a tool in statutory interpretation.

Whether the Bill is the mother of all reforms or otherwise, our MPs must rise above politics, make the Dewan Rakyat a “great scene of debate” and not “an arena in which the rival parties fight their wordy battles”. [See Alan Finlayson, “What Is the Point of Parliamentary Debate?” Deliberation, Oratory, Opposition and Spectacle in the British House of Commons” (2017)]

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.