Mas Ermieyati Samsudin is barking up the wrong tree.
She said I should ask the Dewan Rakyat speaker why PAC’s reports are not being debated in Parliament instead of questioning her.
I have done that. I said two days ago:
“It would be ideal if there is a parliamentary rule for the Auditor-General’s Report to be debated, its reference to the PAC, and a parliamentary rule where the PAC report is then debated.”
I also said
“In my nearly half a century in Parliament, I would have been ecstatic if the government-of-the-day had agreed to a parliamentary debate on the Auditor-General’s Report.
“Yet the Perikatan Nasional (PN) Opposition MPs plunged Parliament into a one-hour chaos in their opposition to debate the 2021 Auditor-General’s Report and even worse, carried out a boycott of debate itself.”
As Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Mas Ermieyati should not have seconded the motion against the debate or boycotted the debate, as she is expected to show her independence as PAC Chairman and not submit to the directive of the PN coalition.
This is why I said she had undermined her fitness to be PAC Chairperson to examine the 2021 Auditor-General’s Report and the ideal solution is for the Deputy PAC Chairperson, Wong Shu Qi (MP for Kluang) to be PAC Chairperson to examine the 2021 and 2022 Auditor-General’s accounts and Mas Ermieyati to be PAC Chairperson to examine the 2023 Auditor-General accounts.
This would also avoid the invidious position of Mas Ermieyati having to preside over the examination of the 2021 and 2022 Auditor-General’s accounts when Perikatan Nasional formed the government, and the invidious position of Wong Shu Qi having the lead the examination of the 2023 accounts when the Anwar unity government was in the saddle.
This is a parliamentary innovation which should be practised by other Parliaments in the world.
If Mas Ermieyati had done a check on the Internet, she would have found that it is not a rare occurrence for the Auditor-General’s Report to be debated in other Parliaments, and the reason why the Auditor-General’s Report is straightaway referred to the PAC in Malaysia is because the government-of-the-day was not prepared to give time for a debate on the Auditor-General’s report before referring it to the PAC for fuller study and investigation.
Would Mas Ermieyati now admit that what she did in seconding the motion against the debate on the 2021 report of the Auditor-General and the ensuing boycott of the debate was especially wrong for her as PAC Chairperson?
I am no more in Parliament although I agree that there should be a Standing Order for the reports of the PAC to be debated in Parliament.
This is likely to be achieved under the Anwar unity government than under any other PN government.
It will a test of Mas Ermieyati’s tenure as PAC Chairperson to get such a parliamentary practice accepted in the parliamentary standing orders.
(Media Statement by DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang in Petaling Jaya on Saturday, 10th June 2023)