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.
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