Parliamentary Notes on the GPA and URA Bills

Selamat Hari Merdeka to all!

I am writing this on the evening of the eve of the national day. We had just concluded the mid-year Parliament sitting which was 8 weeks long. It has been a very tough last week in Parliament as I had to grapple with difficult political questions regarding two controversial bills; the Government Procurement Bill (GPA Bill) and the Urban Renewal Bill (URA Bill).

Ostensibly both bills are intended to help but as they say, the devils in the detail. Both fall short of its good intentions and in fact contained provisions for potential discretionary abuses of power without adequate checks and balance.

The first problem that I found unacceptable was the fact that MPs were given insufficient time to consider both important bills. Both were not minor bills such as revision of fines or amending specific clauses. Both were actually completely new bills, complete set of new laws; the GPA Bill had 12 parts with a whopping 93 clauses whereas the URA Bill had 5 parts and 31 clauses.

These bills were only physically put on our table on the last Monday morning with the intention to debate and vote on them within the next four days. Prior to that, we had no copy of the bills. Last year, about 11 months ago, the Speaker of the House had advised and cautioned the government to present important bills to MPs at least 14 days in advance of the intended and scheduled debate. I suppose the government has chosen to ignore his advice. Further, as far as I am aware, no democratic Parliament in the world rushes bills at this kind of short time frame, without proper committee and stakeholder consultations.

I remember last Monday, coming in as early as 8 am to Parliament (that is when the hall opens for staff to put bills on our table) to get a copy of the URA Bill and started reading it at breakneck speed. Parliament formally starts at 10 am. I threw my officers and interns into the same task, assigning them to read portions of the URA Bill. The next four hours were a blur of activities. Preparing notes and drafting a press statement, gathering a few likeminded MPs, held emergency discussions and meetings, then organising a media slot. At lunch, I led a couple of PKR MPs to meet the media in the Parliament Media room.

Our press conference really started the ball rolling. We were supporting and aligned to the positions and concerns of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Infrastructure and also various NGOs. The Opposition also sounded out similar concerns but their opposition to the bill were less substantive and more driven by political optics.

My main concerns were on the consent threshold limit being too low at 75% and the lack of provisions to protect the re-development of low-cost housing for the underprivileged. I argued that MPs needed more time and we needed greater policy assurances for the poor. We also needed more check and balances on wide discretionary powers of the minister.

Tuesday was thus spent primarily defending our positions on the URA Bill. We were laser focused on the issue amidst a flurry of lobbying activities going on. This lobbying went on overdrive, in particular since PN gave a racial angle to the issue to which BN had to respond to. To cut the long story short, the government decided on Wednesday to postpone the bill and send it back to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Infrastructure for further deliberations. For now, the policy crisis has been hopefully averted or at least, delayed. This postponement is a win for all as MPs now have at least one extra month to agree on amendments to this controversial bill.

The GPA Bill was not on my radar at all, until the late afternoon of Tuesday, after I received the C4 skeletal assessment report and accompanying press statement expressing policy concerns. By then, my office was already exhausted with all the activities surrounding the URA Bill. Unfortunately, no MP had publicly picked up and championed the matters raised by the NGOs. Later we even learnt that the Parliamentary Select Committee on Finance and Economy had not even deliberated on the matter.

To be fair to most MPs, we were told by the government that this was a reform minded bill intended to fight corruption and most of us took it naively, at face value. How can this GPA Bill not improve the very bad state of procurement in Malaysia? The bill had 93 clauses and in retrospect, nobody wanted the big task of reading this voluminous bill since it was put on our table only a day earlier.

My office was all in on the URA Bill and we couldn’t spare any time on the GPA Bill.  The initial statements of concerns from C4 were quickly followed up by other prominent and credible NGOS, including IDEAS and Transparency International. That was on early Wednesday and the bill had started its policy debate by the evening of the same day. It was a case of too little, too late. In some way, the URA Bill had also took most of the fight out of government MPs. In addition, most MPs noted cautiously that the GPA Bill main sponsor was the Prime Minister himself, who is also the Finance Minister.

MPs from my party, PKR, in particularly were acutely aware of the existing three-line whip rule but it appears that nothing can stop the maverick PKR YB Hassan Karim from speaking his mind. The only other government MP to speak out in opposition was YB Willie Mongin from GPS. In meetings and along the corridors many MPs expressed concerns and asked for a postponement, but the lobbying was tepid and many felt we had at least delayed the URA Bill. In the end, the URA Bill was postponed but the GPA Bill was passed. I will remember this day as one of those low points in my time as your MP. This parliament sitting has been brutal on my conscience as your elected representative and I am simply exhausted.

There are still many, many reforms we need to pursue for the nation and for Parlimen Malaysia itself. Why do we continue to make laws hastily via a completely ridiculous law-making process? Why are we still debating bills at the committee stage in the house? Why is the government still in charge of Parliamentary resources even after the Parliamentary Services Act was passed some months ago.  We need urgent and comprehensive reforms on basic things such as resources for committees and research work, and more time needed for consideration of bills. The way things are and if these practices continue in this non reform mode, I too will respond in kind in the very next sitting starting October, taking an increasingly critical position against my own government. It is the very least I can do after promising a reform platform to my constituents. I will also continue the process of exiting myself from politics where I believe I can serve the nation, the people better and more effectively.

For this Merdeka Day, I will be praying and celebrating our national aspirations on a plane to Cox’s Bazar on a human rights mission for ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights. Cox’s Bazar is the largest refugee camp in the world and I will be there for six days. The timing of this mission is not ideal and beyond my control, but my officers and volunteers will be attending community events on my behalf. Wishing all, Selamat Hari Merdeka!