Quality of Malaysian MPs

MPs

Lim Kit Siang, the Parliamentary Opposition Leader had a verbal jousting with Nazri Aziz, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department who is in-charge of Parliamentary Affairs. It started when Kit asked whether the Prime Minister would support the setting-up of three Parliamentary Select Committees – on National Integrity, Higher Education and International Trade and Industry.

Instead of giving a straight-direct answer to the question, Nazri side-tracked the issue raised when he retorted that: “If every issue raised requires a select committee, then perhaps we also need to discuss that former Communist Party of Malaya secretary-general Chin Peng is DAP’s father of Independence. According to Nazri, it was not practical to set up a select committee each time there was a controversy.

“We might as well establish a select committee on allegation from the DAP that Chin Peng was the Bapa Kemerdekaan,” Nazri said.

Kit called on Nazri to retract the remark. Nazri refused.

The opposition moved a motion to refer the Minister to the Parliamentary Privileges and Standards Committee. The motion was defeated as the ruling party controls 90% of the votes.

What is amusing and necessary for all Malaysians to ponder is the quality of the MPs and Ministers we had and the manners in which they are taking into considerations the problems faced by the rakyat.

Over the last few years, year-in and year-out we have aspiring students of all races facing problems of university education, enrolment and inadequacy, problems of the standards of English in science and maths subjects, unemployment and unemployability of graduates, meritocracy and mediocrity, etc, etc.

Isn't it necessary to establish a select committee to review the educational policies and programmes to plug the apparent weaknesses and incompetence, and at the same time, enhance the quality and adequacy of the educational system to prepare the human capital of the nation in meeting the new challenges of the new millennium and the critical challenges posed by globalization.

Instead, the national front government and the minister choose to ignore the apparent issues and resorted to throw muds and creases to smear any relevant proposals forwarded by opposition members of parliament, irrespective whether they are logical, necessary or relevant. Objections for the sake of objections, at the expense of system improvement necessary for the benefit of the rakyat.

Malaysians need to wake up to face reality and we need to ponder what our future holds in the face of globalization, liberalization and the choice of self-destruction which is the apparent route we have been enroute.

In this information, communication and technology age, the rakyat have the ability to be aware of what has happened and what will be happening. The future of the nation is in the hands of the voters. They, and only they, can decide their very own destiny. We must be aware of the recalcitrants; the incompetent; and the atypical corrupt.

God bless the rakyat of Malaysia!