00:08I just recently launched the Dilarang Sponteng Parliament campaign to hold our truant MPs accountable.
00:15And how I'm doing this is by launching an official parliamentary petition.
00:19So specifically, we need to get 500 plus signatures to bring this parliamentary petition to Dewan Rakyat for it to
00:26be discussed there.
00:27So today is my third public signing session and actually we've already reached more than 500.
00:33Specifically, I already have about 800 signatures in hand already, which is more than enough.
00:38But I thought why not just as a symbolic gesture, make it a cool 1000 to show that we have
00:43more than double to show that this is the kind of support that the Rakyat have for this sort of
00:48campaign to hold our MPs accountable.
00:50I think at first, I thought this was quite a mild and straightforward political campaign, but maybe some people disagreed.
00:56So, for example, last week, I was doing my public signing session at Perdana Botanical Gardens.
01:01And while I was there, I was actually evicted out by the DBKL officers, specifically the Kuala Lumpur City Hall.
01:08They said that my official slogan, which is Dilarang Sponteng, is seen as a bantahan or objection.
01:14And therefore, it constitutes as a protest that requires a permit.
01:18And even though my team of volunteers and I clarified with him, number one, we are not a protest, we
01:22are not a gathering, that we are just peacefully collecting signatures.
01:25Also, we also clarified, even if we were a gathering, we actually don't need to require, we are not required
01:29to give a permit anymore, according to the change in our law.
01:32He still refused to listen to us and he still evicted us.
01:35So, talking about parliamentary abstinence, I think what shocks most people is when I tell them that according to our
01:41Malaysian federal constitution,
01:43our Malaysian MPs are allowed to be absent without reason for up to six months, which is crazy.
01:49I mean, can you imagine not going to work without reason for even like one day, apatah lagi, one week,
01:53right?
01:54And they face no consequences for it.
01:55I think, so, the moment I said that, people were like, whoa, I didn't realise that we have so much
01:59leniency for our decision makers.
02:01So, that's number one.
02:02That's the feedback that I get is that people recognise that that's a bit absurd.
02:06Parliamentary petition process has only been used once before in 2020 by AWAM.
02:11Yeah, it was brought, it was put forward by the local women's group AWAM and carried by, at that time,
02:18YB Kasri Patu into parliament to expedite the anti-sexual harassment bill and hasn't been used since then.
02:22And even then, people didn't understand that, you know, that this parliamentary petition process was occurring,
02:28that this was the process that they used.
02:29So, I think when I wanted to do this particular campaign, I thought this would be a very useful vehicle.
02:33I think it's a really great citizen tool for us to demand direct action from parliament.
02:39As working individuals, we are expected to contribute, right?
02:43We are just not expected to tap in, tap out.
02:47On the other hand, there's no regulations for our MPs.
02:49So, I think it's very important that us as Malaysian citizens know what we can expect from our MPs
02:56and make sure that they do their job properly.
02:59It's good that the people kind of realise and know that they have the power to influence change.
03:06And I think this should be definitely encouraged.
03:09As you said, it's not just on this particular issue, not just on Ponting Parliament.
03:14It can be on any other matters as well.
03:16We want the people to also realise that they don't, their power don't end upon just making vote every five
03:24years for election, right?
03:25So that they have the ability to actually influence change through other parliamentary procedures such as this.
03:31You know, you have your private bills and so on and so forth that you can actually put in parliament
03:35as well.
03:36So I think it's definitely encouraging that more and more people, especially the youth,
03:40are trying to kind of utilise and optimise whatever rights they have through these procedures as well.
03:57You
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