By Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Kota Melaka, Lim Kit Siang, in Parliament House, on Wednesday, November 27, 1985:
Call on Datuk Musa Hitam to extend the Parliamentary meeting by at least two days so that justice could be done to eight Bills and three motions
According to the Parliamentary schedule, the Committee Stage of the 1986 Supply Bill will end on 5th December with the last Ministry, the Ministry of National and Rural Development. This leaves one final Parliamentary sitting on December 6, 1985, although there are eight Government Bills and three motions to be dealt with.
I therefore call on the Acting Prime Minister, Datuk Musa Hitam, to extend the Parliamentary meeting by at least another two more days, so that justice should be done to the eight Government Bills and three motions – which could not possible be properly debated if all the 11 items of business had to be disposed off on Dec. 6, which is also a Friday, where Dewan Rakyat sits late and for a shorter meeting time. Even if debate time is extended till midnight on Dec. 6, justice would not be done to the eight Government Bills (some of which are major Bills) and three motions.
The present Parliamentary budget meeting was shortened by two days when for lack of Government Bills, two Parliamentary sittings were cancelled. The extension of two extra days for the Dewan Rakyat would only make up for the two days lost in the early part of the meeting.
I know that the Parliamentary staff would have some difficulties for there would be simultaneous meetings of the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara, but the higher interests of parliamentary responsibility to deal with legislation and parliamentary business must take greater priority over convenience of parliamentary staff.
The eight Government Bills which are to be taken through all stages of reading after the 1986 Budget had been passed are:
1. Finance (No. 2) Bill;
2. Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce)(Amendment) Bill;
3. Penal Code (Amendment) Bill;
4. Legal Aid (Amendment) Bill;
5. Commodities Trading Bill;
6. National Land Code (Penang and Malacca Titles)(Amendment) Bill;
7. Central Bank of Malaysia (Amendment) Bill;
8. Islamic Banking (Amendment) Bill.
The three motions all stand in my name, namely:
1. Substantive motion challenging the Deputy Speaker’s decision in improperly and irregularly canceling two days of Parliamentary sittings;
2. Privilege motion against the MP for Pasir Puteh Wan Najib Wan Mohamad, for breach of Standing Orders 36(10)(c) in making racist statements likely to cause ill-will or hostility between the various communities;
3. Substantive motion challenging the Deputy Speaker’s decision to disallow me to move a privilege motion against Wan Najib on 19th Nov.
Yesterday, at the briefing to MPs on the Baling incident and the showing of video on the Baling Tragedy, I spoke to Datuk Musa Hitam about government giving precedence to my substantive motion challenging the decision of the Deputy Speaker in denying my privilege motion against Wan Najib. Datuk Musa said he had not followed the matter in dispute, and I would be sending him a letter setting out the reasons why the substantive motion challenging the Deputy Speaker’s decision should be allowed debate after two days’ notice as provided for under the Standing Orders.