PARLIAMENTARY SERVICE ACT AND GLOBAL UNCERTAINTIES

I am writing this in times of domestic hope but also global uncertainties.

Parliament is currently in session with another week to go. I am slated to visit the UK on the same night the Parliament session ends next Thursday. I will be flying to UK to engage Malaysian university students and also to meet MPs from the UK Parliament, UK government officials and also think tanks such as Chatham House.

Next week, we will see the introduction of a new Parliamentary Service Act (PSA) bill. It will be debated this coming Tuesday in Parliament, and will represent the biggest reform to date, of the Madani government. The bill was supposed to remove the overriding and excessive powers of the Executive over the Malaysian Parliament in terms of the administration of Parliament, including budgetary matters. Together with other reformist MPs, I have been championing the re-introduction of the bill since becoming an MP in 2013.

For proper context, my readers should know that Malaysia actually had a Parliamentary Services Act, introduced in 1963. However, the act was repealed in 1992 during the authoritarian rule of Dr. Mahathir. Since then, unreasonable and excessive Executive powers over Parliament have become the norm and culture in Malaysia. We see this warped culture persisting even today, in the scope, powers and budgetary matters of the Parliamentary Special Select Committees. We see the same culture in (a) the practice of disallowing a vote of no confidence, (b) not enabling private members bills and motions, (c) the practice of denying equal budgets to all MPs, and (d) the lack of an independent Parliament fiscal office.

As such, the introduction of this new bill brings much hopes of reforms. Alas, these hopes are not reflected in the actual wordings of the bill. I do not intend to dwell on this but to take my mother’s good advice; if you have nothing good to say, best not to say anything. Yes, we need this law, but let it be recorded in history that the version of the PSA we will be getting is a far from an ideal version of this. If the government in the coming debate, gives an undertaking to revisit the law and amend and improve it, say a year from now after its implementation, this is a bill that I will reluctantly support.

On international and trade matters, which is my main tasks in Parliament, things are getting more and more uncertain on a daily basis. The Trump administration pursuit of tariffs is something that we must study and prepare for. We need to understand the extend of these tariffs on China, Mexico and Canada. We have maybe two to three months to study its detailed implementations. Even if we manage to avoid any immediate tariffs, the impact on Trump’s actions on China will also have wider repercussions on Malaysia and ASEAN. On the negative front, it may encourage the dumping of more Chinese goods into the region, stressing our industrial outputs.

On global conflicts, I am absolutely perplexed by the style and manner of “negotiations” on Ukraine and Gaza. While we tend to be firm but quieter on Ukraine, some of our leaders have very strong opinions on Gaza. What comes next for us? How will BRICS partnership play out? We also need to ask what impact will this new form of diplomacy from Trump, have for the conflict in Myanmar and our chairmanship of ASEAN. Going a bit further north of that, there are more worrying legitimate concerns on what is next for Taiwan, the global microchip supplier and also the overall Asian region. Will Trump and Xi carve out a deal and at whose expense? My grave fear is that these uncertainties will spook the economies of Asia, if not the world. As such we need to wake up and prepare yesterday. We need to complete our free trade agreements quickly, and explore other newer markets.

Lastly, on my personal diplomacy front, in the first three weeks of this Parliament session, I have had a string of very important diplomatic meetings. I have met and/or hosted the UK Speaker, the Swedish Deputy Speaker, the Foreign Minister of Cuba, the French Ambassador for Asia and Oceania, the ASEAN and African ambassadors in KL, and officials from the World Bank. It has been a very hectic and productive session for me, my only wish is that these meetings will make a tiny contribution towards peace and fairer trade in this increasingly volatile world.