ONE WRONG MOVE & I WILL HAMMER YOU! FIRST-TIME MP MARIA CHIN VOWS TO GIVE HARAPAN A HARD TIME IN PARLIAMENT – ‘IF WE DON’T SPEAK UP, THEN WE ARE NO BETTER THAN BN’

ACTIVIST-TURNED-LAWMAKER Maria Chin Abdullah is determined to be a vocal backbencher to provide check and balance to the new Pakatan Harapan government for the next five years.

“Backbenchers have to be vocal, because we have a weak opposition. One by one, they are being called up for investigation,” the Petaling Jaya MP told The Malaysian Insight recently.

“If we (don’t speak up in the Dewan), then we are no better than Barisan Nasional,” said the feisty former Bersih 2.0 chairman who has long been a critic of the former administration.

Next Monday, Maria will be one of 90 first-time members of parliament to be sworn in for the first Dewan Rakyat sitting after the watershed May 9 elections.

A civil society representative, she contested under the PKR ticket in the 14th general election and won Petaling Jaya by beating the BN candidate from MCA by 57,137 votes.

The veteran activist, who has co-founded several local women’s rights groups, said she does not intend to be subservient to the government of the day despite winning the elections under PH’s banner.

She hopes to rally PH backbenchers to make the Dewan Rakyat as robust as the UK Parliament, if not better.

“In the UK, there is a parliamentary select committee attached to each ministry, for education, transport (and so forth), to scrutinise how the ministries spend their budget and programmes implemented. This is what MPs should be doing, not building longkang (drains).”

Another benefit of having parliamentary select committees is to ensure that stakeholders are consulted before the Dewan Rakyat passes laws and policies proposed by the executive, she added.

“A select committee will have the capacity to go around the country to consult professionals, groups, private sector, academics, stakeholders affected by the proposed law or policy.

“Then we’ll get better laws, not lousy laws like the anti-fake news law and the Peaceful Assembly Act,”   said Maria.

Reform agenda

Her deep knowledge of the Malaysian electoral system as well as its shortcomings led her to place electoral reform as top of her agenda as MP.

Maria said she hopes to push for a change to Malaysia’s first past-the-post electoral system, to ensure a fairer and more balanced representation.

“I want to propose a mixed proportional representation electoral system. This will ensure seats are allocated by popular vote. Smaller parties will have a chance to win more seats,” she said.

“We can overcome the problem of gerrymandering and smaller parties, women and marginalised communities like the Orang Asli will have better representation (in the Dewan Rakyat).”

She will also be seeking to set up a parliamentary select committee specifically on gender equality and call for the abolition of laws that violate human rights, such as the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma), and Section 124B and Section 124C of the Penal Code that criminalise activities and attempts to undermine parliamentary democracy.

“It’s not enough to abolish Sosma, Section 124 of the Penal Code also needs to go.

“Or they (the government) must specify what they meant by undermining parliamentary democracy,” said Maria, who was detained for 10 days without trial in 2016 before the Bersih 5 rally under both laws.

She admits that her excitement of beginning her first term as a lawmaker has been somewhat sullied by the fact that PH has yet to release information about any law it intends to abolish or amend in next week’s sitting.

Maria said the new administration should be mindful of the fact that MPs will need time to study acts and amendments to debate and vote on them.

“We need time to research and prepare.

“I hope they don’t do it BN style, put the law on your table the day we’re supposed to debate.”

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