MANILA: For decades, Malaysian prime ministers have held on to powers that could have been transferred to Parliament, but Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim says his administration has finally broken that tradition through sweeping parliamentary reforms.
The Prime Minister said the Parliamentary Services Act represented a fundamental shift in authority, transferring powers traditionally exercised by the executive to the Dewan Rakyat and its Speaker.
Describing the move as a major reform, Anwar said political leaders were generally reluctant to relinquish powers, particularly those traditionally vested in the prime minister and the government.
“Not many leaders are willing to then transfer power.
“The Parliamentary Services Act precisely means that the power that lies with the Prime Minister and the government is given to the House,” he said during a dinner held in conjunction with his working visit to the Philippines at the Malaysian embassy here on Sunday (Nov 15).
Anwar said the reforms had been debated for decades, but previous administrations had been reluctant to surrender such authority.
“We have debated this for the last 30, 40 years. No Prime Minister or government would like to do that,” he said.
In a light-hearted account of how the reforms had affected him personally, Anwar recalled an occasion when he tabled a motion in Parliament but was unable to elaborate after the Speaker immediately thanked him.
“Normally, the Prime Minister will table the motion, then he will explain.
“But once I had tabled it, the Speaker said, ‘thank you’. So I had to sit down.
“My God, the Prime Minister has no chance to explain. You see, that’s the problem of giving more powers to speaker,” he quipped.
Anwar said the incident, although unintentional, illustrated the extent of the changes introduced under the legislation.
“Actually, I don’t think it was intentional, but that describes a major reform that we have taken.
“People don’t normally appreciate that, you know,” he said.
The Parliamentary Services Bill 2025 was passed by the Dewan Rakyat on March 5 last year and by the Dewan Negara on March 20, before receiving royal assent in July.
The Act, which came into force on Oct 1 this year, restored Parliament’s administrative autonomy more than three decades after the original legislation, introduced in 1963, was repealed in 1992.
