Strengthening autonomy, improving parliament infrastructure and enhancing the quality of debates of MPs will be the top priority of Tan Sri Johari Abdul following the passing of the Parliamentary Services Bill 2025 (PSA).
In an exclusive interview with The Star, the Dewan Rakyat Speaker said he can now breathe a sigh of relief after the bill was passed in Parliament on Wednesday (March 5).
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In an exclusive interview with The Star, the Dewan Rakyat Speaker said he can now breathe a sigh of relief after the bill was passed in Parliament on Wednesday (March 5).
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NewsTranscript
00:00Well, my focus at the moment, of course, three. Number one, I was pushing very hard even when
00:17I was the MP for 15 years, and being a Ketua Whip, I was a Ketua Whip in PH at that time.
00:28My relationship with all the Speakers is very close. We were talking about pushing this
00:35agenda of Parliamentary Services Act. How do we take Parliament out of the influence
00:43of the Executive, when the Executive has a Minister even to look after Parliament. Parliament
00:52is put under Prime Minister's Department, and certainly, I would say, certain influence
01:02is exerted on the Parliament, and the running of Parliament is certainly subjected to the
01:08approval of the Prime Minister. I mean, there's that kind of complex relationship. So, I was
01:13talking to Tan Sri Pernekar, Tan Sri Rais, and Tun Junaidy. Somehow, they're quite disillusioned,
01:26because the Chief Executive, who's the Prime Minister, is not responding to that. Of course,
01:32if you were to think logically, no Prime Minister will let go. No Prime Minister will let go.
01:41He's centre of power here, and to let go, meaning to say that you're taking high risk.
01:46You are lucky if you have a reasonable Speaker. You might have one fine day, and not a reasonable
01:51Speaker, then you have problems. But that was my first mission when I was elected as
02:03the Speaker. I said, I must get it done. So, there's a lot of discussion. Of course,
02:10I had high hope on PMX. I know him, he's a Democrat. He will walk the talk, and certainly,
02:17finally, we'll get it done. Meaning to say that, that was my mission, mission accomplished
02:22on that.
02:23Tan Sri, now I can ask about the PSE industry. After 33 years, it's finally revived back,
02:31and how do you feel about it?
02:32Great.
02:33Great. What's your first order? Because the main point is autonomy, right?
02:40Yes. I mean, that autonomy part. See, psychologically, you feel that business, the real business
02:51should be separation of power. I mean, you go and ask any student at university, what
02:59is democracy? I mean, the kind of system that we are following, separation of power
03:05must be very clear. Doctrine is there. So, now that you have executive, judiciary, and
03:11legislative. Now, mentally, you feel, ah, thank God, we have separation of power. Now,
03:19we move within our domain now. That's important. I will not disturb what executive is doing,
03:25and the executive don't disturb me. Of course, there are orders. Of course, there are ways
03:30of doing things. We will not cross each other. I respect you, you respect me, and let's work
03:36together for a nation building. But, the expectation from the outside world is very great. Now
03:47that you have autonomy now, what do you do? As I said, number one, I want to see this
03:55parliament is going to be one of those respected parliaments. Not only physically, but what's
04:04inside, the substantive, the quality of debates, then the system that we run here, the very
04:14qualified personnel, then finance, sufficient finance, the committee functions well, select
04:22committee or permanent committee, then the back-up services, the libraries, and everything
04:28else. So, substantive and the physical part, they must come hand in hand. We do a lot of
04:37training after this, because MPs are human beings. Yesterday, he was a teacher. Suddenly,
04:42he's an MP. You don't expect him to be MP. Suddenly, he knows everything. No. So, there
04:46must be certainly training, and continuous training. For the five years he's here, he
04:52has to go through all his offices here, and he goes through. Also, we should have back-up
04:59to help them. At the moment, they are struggling with researchers. So, that's why researchers
05:06should be enough for everyone, to help them. Then, the library should be there to help
05:17them. Now, they are sharing. Every MP is sharing three rooms. I don't know what it means. Three
05:24in a room. Three is a crowd, because the moment you have two, okay, it can be quiet. But the
05:31moment you have three, then topics come into the picture. Then, instead of you doing job,
05:35you'll be talking, talking, talking. So, I'm thinking, even we are thinking, there are
05:43insufficient rooms for MPs. So, we still have land. We will build more land, more buildings
05:52to cater for, like banquet. We don't have banquet hall. At the moment, the one that
05:56we're using is not banquet at all. It's just normal hall. Then, what happened to our researchers?
06:03Where do they house? We don't have a special house for them, to house them. Then, the researchers,
06:10at the same time, where do they stay? We don't have room for them. That's like community.
06:15They're very limited. We have three out of ten. Only three. So, these are the areas that
06:20I'm thinking at the moment. Since we are independent at the moment, these are my priorities. Certainly,
06:27I think, by next year, we should be thinking seriously about building this area, and also
06:33capacity building among the staffing.
06:37Okay. Then, you'll be hearing a lot of yelling and shouting from the opposition about,
06:47where's the money for us? Where's the money? Sometimes, they misunderstood the whole concept.
06:56The PAC is not about them. The PAC is not about parliamentarians. The PAC is about system
07:02here, the financial system of the running of the parliament and the staffing. Whereas,
07:09the, what we call it, the CDF, the rest, they're just under different acts altogether. There's
07:19under Saraan 1980, and Act 237. This is where whatever is given to the MPs are circulated.
07:35If you want to talk about whatever money and fund that should be channelled to you, including
07:43the running of the office, you should not be talking about this issue, PSA. You should
07:49be talking about the Saraan, which is Act 237, Saraan 1980. But then nevertheless, since
07:57we have the majlis, the one that we passed yesterday, under the new Act, whereby the
08:05formation of the Majlis Pembatan Parliament, probably, MPP, so probably they can raise
08:10it there. Then probably we can look at the whole entirety, probably, that their interest
08:19will be taken care of.
08:21Well, certainly, that's an issue. Let's talk about it. I will call, what you call it, their
08:31rep, and listen. You have been barking on the wrong tree now. But certainly, okay, these
08:37are your concerns, and of course, we look into it, how we can do it.
08:41Tan Sri, also, some of the MPs were raising about representation of the Chief Opposition
08:48Chief, or the backbencher chief in the MPP.
08:53No, I guess, we are doing this not for this government alone. We are doing this for whichever
08:59government comes to the picture. I mean, it should be the same. Because now that the PMX
09:05has even do the amendment, which amendment was done yesterday, that at least now, that
09:15the two reps from the opposition is clearly stated in the Act now. But nevertheless, you
09:22have some other committees in the Parliament that you can work with the MPP. So, because
09:29even the chairman, they have co-chairmen, me and the President of the Senate, and other
09:36government reps, JPA and Kementerian Keuangan is still there. And the Chief Executive, Ketua
09:42Petak B, is there. So, of course, you have a lot of channels that you can use. So, it
09:50doesn't mean that, oh, only Ketua Pembangkang. I think that's how we do it here. All committees
10:00do have reps. Because to me, it should have representatives from both sides. I mean, so
10:09far, you check all. And that should be there. Not only that, during my time. Previous speakers
10:16do that also. Because when we are up in the bench, we don't see that this is opposition,
10:22this is government. As far as speakers are concerned, everyone is equal.