Tuesday, April 08, 2014

Why no record of written questions and answers in Malaysian parliament website?

Members and Parliament can ask ORAL and WRITTEN questions, whereby answers are given to them. For the Oral Questions, the answers will be there in the Hansard( the record of minutes of the Parliament proceedings) - but until 2014, the Parliament website keeps secret the Written Questions and Answers and the question is WHY?

The people have a right to know the question and the answers given, and all these could be simply uploaded in the Malaysian Parliament website. Our MPs and/or Senators still do not have the habit or the discipline to share with us in Malaysia the questions and the answers. This is also the case for most Opposition MPs/Senators - the people deserve to know.

When you hear the Parliamentary session, it is not uncommon for the Minister to say sometimes that he/she will forward the answers in written form - but the sad thing is that the people are kept in the dark. We want to know...It is our right.

Could it be that the reason for non-disclosure is the fact that most MPs/Senators never really take the trouble to frame and ask written questions..In this modern day and age, it is so easy to just scan question and answers received and make it available through Blogs(which are free) or websites. 

Well, the sad state of affairs is that most of these people's representatives do not even a Blog or a Website, which is a must. 

Many 'tweet' - but really with the number of words permitted per tweet, how effectively can you communicate to the people...

Some may have Facebook - the problem here is finding the information, you have to literally scroll down and try to find ....and then end up frustrated because the information that you are trying to find is not available...

ABSENT - there should also be attendance records of Parliamentarians (indicating also what time the came in and what time the left the Dewan... most of time, we now know that our 'peoples' representative' is absent.... Members of Parliament - that says it all, and your primary duty is to be in Parliament for all the proceedings representing your constituents...

 

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