The Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat issued a press statement on May 13, 2020 notifying of the order of parliamentary sessions for the Dewan Rakyat scheduled on May 18, 2020.
According to his press statement, the order of the proceedings on May 18 shall start with the opening speech by Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di=Pertuan Agong at 10am at both Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara simultaneously and that there shall be no sittings after the royal speech,
Standing Order 11(2) of the Dewan Rakyat provides that the sitting of the House in each Session is to be held on day and time as the King may appoint and the Speaker or his deputy would need to fix at least 28 days’ notice before the next Session.
In other words, the event scheduled on May 18 is to be an opening event and 28 days were to be calculated from the opening event.
Reason given for such arrangement was because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. However, we could not be certain how long the Covid-19 pandemic will last and if the pandemic would end by the next parliamentary session. At the same time, being part the process of democracy, parliamentary session is an essential element to ensure check and balance to the governance of the country. The legislators could consider using other alternatives to conduct parliamentary sessions to ensure that the process of democracy is not being undermined even during Covid-19 pandemic. We would provide further updates here should there be any further development on the parliamentary sittings.
Penning Perceptions 