Awang Hashim
KUALA LUMPUR: PAS' Pendang MP Awang Hashim (pic) has called for a review of allowance for lawmakers who fail to turn up for Parliament sittings without any valid reasons.
Awang asked the Speaker to address the low attendance of lawmakers from both sides of the political divide.
"From 4.30pm Tuesday (Oct 23) until now, I counted each head, the highest number is 38 lawmakers.
"It does not even reach 20% of the total 222 seats in the Dewan Rakyat.
"Before we want to bring change and plan for betterment of the rakyat, Parliament also needs to change," he said while debating the Mid-Term Review of the 11th Malaysia Plan.
According to Standing Order 13(1), there must be at least 26 MPs at the Dewan Rakyat proceedings.
Awang said the Speaker needs to find a way so that more lawmakers will attend the sittings.
"Those who only attend for a while and then go back and those who attended from morning until night will also get the same allowance.
"We need to look into this. This is the rakyat's money," he said.
"If we cannot give a commitment to those who voted us in, how can we bring change across the country, when we ourselves do not walk the talk," he added.
"There is not even one minister at the government's bench, only two deputy ministers.
"The ministers are supposed to be here to discuss the direction of the country.
"We are discussing something big for the upcoming years led by the Pakatan Harapan government, whether they want to continue, make changes or halt with policies, but is this is the type of commitment we are looking at?" he asked.
R.S.N Rayer (PH-Jelutong) interjected, by saying the ministers and their deputies have duties outside of the Dewan.
Datuk Dr Noraini Ahmad (BN-Parit Sulong) supported, saying that a mechanism should be found to address the matter.
Awang then continued by saying that he was addressing the matter in general and did not target Pakatan MPs but also those in the opposition bloc.
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