Hasmy: Reinstating pre-legislative scrutiny a good proposal

"Such a process will contribute towards a more inclusive and efficient parliamentary system."

KUALA LUMPUR: The move to reinstate a parliamentary committee system to allow MPs to scrutinise Bills in a thorough manner has been welcomed by the National Human Rights Commission (Suhakam).

Its chairman Tan Sri Hasmy Agam said the proposal by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nancy Shukri was timely as there was a compelling need for instituting a pre-legislative scrutiny of Bills involving the establishment of parliamentary or select committees.

“Such a process will contribute towards a more inclusive and efficient parliamentary system, as practised by other democracies.

“The commission strongly supports this proposal as it is very much in line with its own proposal made in 2011 for the establishment of a Parliamentary Select Committee on Human Rights, which was fully endorsed by (former Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department) Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Hasmy added that the commission believed the establishment of such a committee would be an additional measure in strengthening parliamentary democracy.

“It will undeniably offer a means to increase the institutional capacity of Parliament to consider human rights, as well as to deliver a more organised and rigorous approach to the pre-legislative consideration of civil liberties.

“It conforms with the Belgrade Principles on the Relationship between National Human Rights Institutions and Parliaments of 2012,” he said.

Hasmy said the mechanism would strengthen the legislative process by balancing the Government’s policies for the nation with its human rights obligations as a responsible and respected member of the global community.

“In reiterating its support for the minister’s proposal, the commission looks forward to its early implementation,” he said.

Nancy had suggested for the re-introduction of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to give ample time to lawmakers to discuss the drafting of proposed laws at the committee level before being tabled in Parliament.

The PSC was last used in 2004.