by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Saturday, June 8 1991:
Three important reasons why the OPP debate should not begin on the first day of Parliament on June 17
There are three important reasons why the Outline Perspective Plan debate in parliament should not begin on the first sitting of the Dewan Rakyat on June 17 and why all MPs should be given full ample time of one months to study the OPP and the National Economic Consultative (NECC) report and to get public feedback before any parliamentary debate.
Firstly, if MPs are required to debate the OPP on the first sitting of Parliament on June 17, when MPs have not received the OPP and the NECC Report even today, then the Barisan Nasional government is openly treating Parliament as a mere rubber-stamp.
The Government is not interested in what the MPs, whether from the Opposition or from its own backbenchers, have to say on the OPP- and is therefore not interested whether the Mps talk sense of not, whether they understand the OPP and NECC report or not, or whether they have read these two reports in the first place!
Secondly, if MPs, who represent the people of Malaysia, are not given full ample time to study the OPP and the NECC Report before debate, this also means that the Barisan Nasional Government is not interested in public views and does not hold itself accountable to the people at all. This will go against the very tenets of a democratic society and show that what we have in Malaysia is only parliamentary democracy in form and outer trappings, but which is completely absent in essence.
Thirdly, if the OPP is rammed through Parliament without giving MPs full ample time to study it and to get public feedback, it raises the question as to whether there is something which the Barisan Nasional Government is hiding from the people in the OPP. By getting the OPP debate started on the first day of Parliament on June 17, are approved, it will be too late for anyone to have a deeper study of the OPP.
Does the Barisan Nasional Government want to openly tell the whole world that it regards Parliament as a mere rubber-stamp to give formal approval to what the Cabinet had already decided and that what Mps say is utterly irrelevant; that parliamentary democracy in Malaysia exists only in form but without inner meaning or substance and that it has something to hide and does not want the country.
There is no reason whatsoever why MPs cannot be given at least one months to study the OPP and the NECC report and to get public feedback, as the Dewan Rakyat will also sit for ten days from July 10 to 23.
This is not a party political issue, but concerns fundamental question as to whether we have a meaningful Parliament as well a meaningful democratic system in Malaysia.
I hope all political parties, including Barisan Nasional component parties, will support my call for all MPs to be given full ample time to study the OPP and the NECC report and to get public feedback before parliamentary debate on the OPP.