parliament convenes

parliament house

yesterday morning, we see the swearing-in ceremony of the new MPs. altogether there are 219 seats in dewan rakyat; of these 21 are held by the opposition
comprising of 12 from DAP, seven PAS, one keadilan and one independent and the rest by BN.

again, dr mohamed zahir ismail, 80 years old, was reappointed as the dewan rakyat speaker. he had held this office since 1982. i guess it was a bit kind of sarcasm on lim kit siang’s part when he stood up twice to php congratulate and pay tribute to dr mohd zahir.

the dewan rakyat will reconvene toay when theyYang di-pertuan agong will officially open the 11th Parliament, and it will be in session for 14 days until 8 june.

hmmm… i’m sure we’ll be able to witness some fun in parliament within these 14 days… especially now since lit kit siang and karpal singh are around. oh no, we can’t witness as live telecast of the session is not allowed. well, we’ll get to hear of it from the various media then (hopefully first hand report, and no favourism).

in the meantime, the minister in the prime minister’s department in charge of parliamentary affairs, datuk seri mohamed nazri abdul aziz informed that a new ‘buddy system’ would be introduced for this 11th parliamentary session. this ‘buddy system’ is to ensure that there is a quorum each time the dewan rakyat session is on.

hmm… buddy system? will this work to ensure attendance? i doubt it. datuk nazri had said:

“in the buddy system a member of parliament (MP) can choose his partner. so when he’s not around, his partner can cover for him, and vice versa,” he told

that alone already suggest to me, it give good reason/excuse for a MP to be absent. “my buddy will be there lah, so never mind i no go” many of the MPs would think. i wonder is there some kind of attendance book for the MPs? shouldn’t attendance be compulsory and if a MP cannot attend, s/he must have good excuse, with a written letter?