THE NINTH MALAYSIA PLAN causes the spending of about RM200 billion. Yet this is not the major topic in Parliament. A minister's work dress is. It does not matter if the Ninth Malaysia Plan is discussed as it should, so long as the minutea of the minister's clothes is. So Dato' Rais Yatim is forced to explain why he wears the clothes he does. It shows the utter irrelevance of Parliament in today's Malaysia. What the executive says goes. It does not matter what Parliament says or does. The executive administration of elected officials in Malaysia has ignored Parliament since 1970, after the racial riots of the previous year. But that is par for the course. In Malaysia, Singapore, and in almost every country that was once a colonial territory. Professor Cyril Northcote Parkinson, of the University of Malaya in Singapore, in the 1950s, wrote of this phenomenon in his Parkinson's Law, where he described this tendency, Where the matter to be spent runs in the millions, it was settled expeditiously. But when the subject matter concerned the tea lady, it would be discusssed for hours.

THE NATIONAL FRONT IS caught in a cleft stick. It idoes not know how to solve the problems within. The political scene has changed, what measures it takes would be known. And it needs the secrecy if it is remain a viable political party. No one in the party, from the Prime Minister, who is its president as of its major party, UMNO, down, would talk about the crisis within or outside. It has always ruled by stealth, creeping on the people often against their will. The latest crisis – that of Corporal Moorthy and of Muslim women – grips Malaysians at the moment, but Malaysians had always woken up to be shortchanged, often by the National Front government. But it has always had a solid majority, usually two-thirds, in Parliament; it now has about 90 per cent of the house.

The best known blogger among politicians is DAP veteran leader Lim Kit Siang, who is also leader of the Opposition in Parliament. DAP MP for Seputeh Teresa Kok has become better known for her blog after she brought to Parliament a video recording which showed the police to be lying, and the government to be backing them.

THE NATIONAL FRONT GOVERNMENT can only pass laws on the conduct of Islam for Kuala Lumpur. In other states, although they are in power, they can only do with the consent of the ruler for it is ordained in the Federal Constition, which the National Front and its previous Alliance is responsible. It got its first chance at enacting Islamic law when Parliament, which it controls, got the legal right to pass laws for the Federal Territory. The Federal Territory now consists of Kuala Lumpur, Putra Jaya, and Labuan. The Islamic Family Law (Amendment) (FT) Act is the result. It can only persuade the states, even though it rules all but one, because the consent of the rules is necessary. It would not touch on Islam in its legislation because of this. But it now needs to prove to Malaysians that it is more Islamically inclined, to prove to PAS that it is superior in the introduction of Islam into Malaysia. But it is unfair to call it the work of the National Front. It is UMNO's view, which like in all matters the other parties, Islamic or otherwise, in the National Front defer. It became an issue it had to use threats because the group most affected, the women, protested. But it protested too late. It should have protested before the bill was discussed in the Lower House of Parliament in September.

THE MINISTER IN CHARGE OF Parliament, otherwise known as minister in the Prime Minister's Department. has made it clear that the Senate is not for discussion and eventually vote on contentious bills. He has warned the National Front women senators that they must vote against their conscience and for their own degradation. It does not matter what they personally thought. The chairman of the Senate, in most countries elected but in Malaysia a sinecure for elderly National Front members, did not object. Those who did oppose it, and saw Dato' Seri Naziz Aziz, were told bluntly there would be no discussion or debate. It is final: the women will be second class citizens in their country. The non-Islamic members of the National Front did not object to this proposal, which UMNO had thought up to become more Islamic than the opposition PAS, and presumably agreed to it. Even the cabinet minister for women's affairs, a woman, had agreed to her downgrading. She values her position in the cabinet more than her sex. Women could be downgraded, in the name of Islam, if the National Front could steal a march over Parti Sa Islam or PAS. But this is only one of several laws passed which makes the non-Muslim and women second class citizens. A former climber of Mount Evert, an Indian, who was reduced to a cripple in a wheelchair after another accident, has died, and the Selangor Religious Affairs Department has insisted he be buried as a Muslim. His family says he was a Hindu, and should be buried as a Hindu. A former cabinet minister, an Indian, had to be buried urgently so that the Selangor Religious Affairs Department would not get at the body after the state funeral.

Parliament HAS BECOME A charade. The MPs from the ruling National Front are not given a free vote in the Rafidah Aziz affair. The two NF MPs who voted with the Opposition in referring Datin Seri Rafidah Aziz to the Committee of Privileges comes up for mention in newspaper reports and in Paliament as if they had done something terrible. It now seems the National Front never had any intention to put Rafidah Aziz through the hoop. She knows it, and almost every NF MP knows it. The result was predictable, although Parliament was allegedly given a free hand by the NF. The NF's majority in Parliament would see, as it turned out, that Datin Seri Rafidah would get into no trouble. And indeed she did not. She is in the New Straits Times today (6 October 2005) talking about her role in nation building, and that she viewed her international role more important than turning up in Parliament. Parliament is not important, she avers in the interview with New Straits Times. The leader of the Opposition, Mr Lim Kit Siang, is irrelevant, so his questions are less important than the Cabinet's. But in the Parliamentary system of government in force, it is more important than the cabinet. Tun Mahathir used to have cabinet meetings in Parliament. He at least paid lip service to the primacy of Parliament. The Natioanl Front does not. There is pressure on the National Front to penalise the two MPs who voted with the Opposition. And there is a collective sigh of relief that she is scot free. That was only possible by the massive majority the NF has in Parliament.

THE MINISTER FOR ParliamentARY AFFAIRS aka minister with special functions, Dato' Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz, believes debates in Parliament are useless. So he said at the much-touted 'public debate' on the Internal Security Act on Monday, 26 July 2004. "It is not useful at all if we debate it in the House, as the government has the overwhelming majority," he said, "So, no matter how long we debate, the government will still win the motion." It is therefore pointless to waste time debating issues which the opposition would lose anyway. If this view is widely held in the cabinet, no wonder Parliament is reduced to a rubber stamp, there to conform to the constitutional norms more to show the world we are a democratic nation than for anything else. The rascals in the opposition, he believes, are there to trip the government, and that, you understand, is unParliamentary. The people elected the government, so how dare this charade of an opposition ask questions that could trip it up?

The man who should worry is Dato' Seri Najib. He is to Pak Lah what Tan Sri Musa Hitak was to Tun Mahathir. Both prime ministers have to keep looking over their shoulders at what their deputy prime ministers are doing. There is no love lost between them, and between their wives. Besides, Johore is out of the loop in this cabinet even if two new UMNO ministers are in this cabinet - Datin Azalina Othman (youth and sports) and Dato' Khaled Nordin (entrepreneur and co-operative development) - but in relatively unimportant ministries. The UMNO vice president, Tan Sri Muhiyuddin Yassin, is in agricultural and agro-based industries, but otherwise out of the power equation. If current thinking becomes real, he would challenge Dato' Seri Najib for the deputy presidency. The other vice-president, Tan Sri Mohamed Taib, is out of Parliament altogether, but he could be expected to stand for the UMNO vice-presidency in June. On the face of it, he has little or no chance. It would have been so if Tun Mahathir was UMNO president. But Pak Lah has yet to find his ground, he has to take matters slowly, making haste slowly, and move in little steps. His cabinet is one manifestation of that. It is for one reason and one only: to secure his position to make himself unbeatable in June. It is also important for Pak Lah that few warlords succeed in the UMNO elections.

NOTHING HAPPENS IN MALAYSIA this week. It is election time. It is a time for political parties to lose their reason to promise heaven on earth en route to hell waiting for us around the corner. What do these political parties stand for? We do not know. All the political parties have their manifestos, released either just before or just after nomination day, obliquely referred to in the media, though few have cited it. In short, we do not know what the political parties stand for, except vaguely. As for the specifics, like government bills before the Malaysian Parliament, the small print is where the punch is and is glossed over in the rush to make it to the finishing line. The general election, like our laws, are completed at breakneck speed, with no thought for any one to sit down and reflect, and debate on what it means.

THERE IS MUCH TALK these days of the great functioning democracy Malaysia is. We have had regular elections since the first in 1955, the people vote without fear or favour, the Opposition, mark you, can stand for election and can even be returned. Look at Kelantan and Trengganu. PAS has won more elections in one state than the National Front (BN) governing coalition, and in power since 1990; in the other since 1990. We have a Parliament that is, we are told, the envy of the developing world. There is freedom of speech; that there is not after speech is a minor inconsistency that governments have to accommodate when there are enough people out there only too happy to challenge the official version of events. The short campaign period is justified as an efficient way to get it over with as soon as possible and get on with the task of running the governmnt and country. The National Front (BN), and its predecessor, the Alliance, is returned like clockwork to Parliament with a two-thirds majority and more. The Opposition is disorganised, disunited, disbelieved which is why it cannot even smell the corridors of power at the centre. Let there be elections in Malaysia for decades to come, and you can be sure of one inalienable fact: the BN would be victorious, the Opposition would show its weaknesses at polling time and be rejected firmly by the electorate.

NOTHING IN THIS GENERAL Election suggest anything has changed. The National Front (BN) government is in charge, and it continues to restrict the rules that make it all but impossible for its opponents to have a fair fight. Over the years, it has raised the ante to insist upon millions of ringgit in electoral deposits if a political party wants to take the BN head on. This is increased regularly over the years, that it is a financial burden to do that. Now the Election Commission want further deposits from each candidate of RM10,000 and RM5,000, for Parliament and state, and returned if he removes the posters he had put up. Nothing has changed that would suggest the BN is prepared to give the Opposition a fair shake in a poll. Parliament and all state assemblies but Sarawak was dissolved yesterday (04 March 2004), the Election Commission met today to decide on nominations on 13 March and polling on 21 March, or a campaign of eight days.

Parliament IS DISSOLVED, AS are all state assemblies but Sarawak's Council Negri. The National Front (BN) government had played a cat-and-mouse game with itself on when it would be called since Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became Prime Minister. The Opposition this time read the signs early and began preparations for general election in January, earlier than BN. So much so that it surprised UMNO leaders when Parliament was dissolved. The Election Commission would meet soon to decide on the polling day. The originally widely believed date of 21 March is out: on that day the second leg of the F-1 motor racing season is held in Kuala Lumpur. It would be a few days or so after that. It is Pak Lah's first general election since he became prime minister in November. He needs to do well to strengthen his chances, and cut out all opposition, when UMNO chooses its president at its annual general assembly in June.

IN OCTOBER, Parliament SENT INVITATIONS to MPs, Senators, present and former cabinet ministers and others for a grand farewell dinner for Malaysia's prime minister of 22 years, Tun Mahathir Mohamed, on Saturday, 06 December 2003. The dinner was not held. On Thursday, 04 December, MPs and senators were telephoned by the Parliament Secretary, to cancel it. Why? The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, had promised to be in Malacca, could not wriggle out of it, and regretfully could not attend the dinner. But Pak Lah's aides and supporters have a different reason: The Parliament Secretary did not remind Pak Lah of the dinner early and is admitted to hospital for an illness unknown. It is as lame excuse as any.

THE SPEAKER OF THE DEWAN RAKYAT (THE lower house of Parliament), Tan Sri Zahir Ismail, is a former High Court judge, in office for more than a quarter of a century. Yet, like many appointed to high positions for political reliability than competence or acclaim, he is clueless about his constitutional position and his rights. That he is caught out over the conduct of another body whose members are appointed for the same reason must embarrass those who did the appointing. So when the Election Commission misled the Conference of Rulers and the House of Parliament, Tan Sri Zahir Ismail, promptly tells the world how impotent he is. But when a cabinet minister repeats the EC's lies to the House, he must apologise and act against the EC separately. Instead, Tan Sri Zahir reduces himself to shivering jelly.

IT WAS A BRILLIANT SETUP. This time the National Front (BN) would show how rascally PAS MPs are. It did not succeed now as well. Each time it has PAS in its sights and attacks, it is not PAS but BN which is wounded. This time PAS would not get away, the BN strategists insisted. The accidental BN MP for Pendang, Dato' Osman Abdul, is all but certain he could not be re-elected in the coming general elections against a PAS candidate. PAS is so well-entrenched that he believes PAS could capture the state. So he does nothing to lose if he made a fool of himself. So he asked a question in Parliament on 24 September 2003 which BN thought would tie PAS in knots: Would the Prime Minister reveal how many MPs claimed expenses more than RM10,000. The Parliamentary secretary in the Prime Minister's Department, Dato' Noh Omar, decided he would not answer it but focus his attention on one PAS MP, Mr Arpandi Mohamed, who had claimed between RM11,000 and RM12,000 a month for 18 months. It was reported as if he had done something wrong. The BN scented blood. And called in the Anti-Corruption Agency to investigate. The ACA, never missing a chance to reveal its toothless impotence, began its investigations. That it did is linked to with top-level discussions this weekend if general election should be held in December.

BN though it had a winner when Mr Husam asked how many MPs, in Government and Opposition, had claimed official expenses of more than RM10,000 a month. The Parliamentary secretary in the Prime Minister's Department, Dato' Noh Omar, said one PAS MP, Mr Mohamed Apandi Mohamed, had claimed RM132,335 in 2003 and RM78,356 for the first six months of 2003 - about RM1,000 and RM2,000 a month more than the RM10,000 base figure in the two years. Dato' Noh did not suggest this was wrong. The claims were forwarded, as required, to Parliament, which approved and paid them. If it was excessive or wrongly filed, it would have been rejected and a public campaign begun forthwith. This did not happen. It suggests that Parliament is profligate to the point that BN MPs would happily allow MPs such generous expenses. If they are there, how can you blame an MP for not claiming them. The average claim, Dato' Noh said, was RM5,000 a month. He now wants to report Mr Mohamed Apandi to that toothless wonder, the Anti-Corruption Agency, for what he regards a false claim. As usual, he bolts the barn door after the horses have fled.

The budget does not address the fundamental weaknesses of the country's fiscal and financial illnesses. Little or no mention is made of the off-budget agencies and their profligate budgets for which the government is ultimately responsible. Parliament has no oversight of it, but in Malaysia it provides the government with a parallel budget almost as large as the national budget but over which the elected representatives have no control of. The government makes use of their funds to hide its own profligacy before Parliament. Putra Jaya is built out of Parliamentary reach because its construction is funded by Petronas, an off-budget agency. Plans are afoot to sell a large chunk of its petroleum exploration arm to a crony, and Parliament is not told about it. But the budget does not discuss its impact and reach and is presented to Parliament more to hide the cancer within than any attempt to cure it.

Would the government call a general election before Dr Mahathir retires? The gratuitious comments of BN leaders gives no clue, but this sudden interest in getting ready for elections does suggest it might. That a snap election can be called is a political myth: the BN must prepare for one, it has to get the component parties to work seamlessly towards it, it cannot do that in secret, so enough hints and clues have to be given in its aim of getting its troops ready. The clearest indication of a general election this year is that the budget is to be presented to Parliament on 12 September. Normally it is in late October. The BN would not call for general election without an election budget.

But this Malaysian arrogance is what will bring this country down to its knees. Ministers assume Parliament is a rubber stamp. Policies are announced, like the policy on English, as an afterthought after declaring opening a goldsmiths. Parliament is not informed nor are policies debated because the Mahathir government insists it is elected by the people, it can do what it likes, and Parliament is there only to tell the world Malaysia is a democratic nation. Hundreds of billions of ringgit are spent by cabinet fiat, Parliament is kept in the dark, and the Speaker is quick to snip any attempt to have it discussed.

Parliament decides visitors cannot question BN MPs

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