Parliamentary Updates and Political Challenges Ahead

By Wong Chen

My dear Subang Constituents,

This is a relatively short article. MPs are currently in the end of the first Parliamentary session of 2026. We had a short break for CNY but have another two days of debates ahead of us, next week. It has been a session packed with work; lots of diplomatic meetings, press conferences, international trade related meetings, committee hearings, and I delivered two speeches and multiple interjections, as well as hosted NGOs and university students. During this long session, I also took part in the anti-Azam Baki and Corporate Mafia street protest.

This coming Monday and Tuesday, my government will present two bills, one of which is good but the other is not. Rafizi Ramli and nine other MPs, including myself have stated our position regarding the bill on separation of powers of Attorney General and Public Prosecutor (PP). We are demanding the active involvement of Parliamentarians in the appointment and removal clauses of the PP. If these demands are not met, then the bill will represent yet another so called reform bill that falls far short of the standards of good governance and participatory democracy.

The fact that some of us, MPs who are still committed to reforms, have to constantly oppose our own supposedly reform minded government’s poorly drafted bills, is just a very sad state of affairs. One thing is certain; the broken law-making process has yet to be fixed and the continued limited resources to Parliament is not something the Madani Government should be proud of.

Increasingly, I believe that we have all been taken for a long, winding and costly ride. For some who are now in their sunset years, those who took part in street protests full of hope for reforms in the 1990s, this realization hurts deep.

For the younger ones, facing a bleak future of climate change and challenges of AI, they need structural reforms and more progressive leadership; they are angry and lost too.  At my own personal level, reflecting that I gave up a lucrative professional career, sacrificed so much family time, time that are forever lost, this realization of being taken for a ride, hurts even deeper still. In the coming weeks and months, I am certain that I will be facing more political challenges. I am ready for these and please rest assured that whatever happens, I will continue to serve you without fear or favour.