KUALA LUMPUR (BERNAMA) – Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul said he was seriously looking into ways, including the idea of cutting the Member of Parliament’s (MPs) allowance if they were continuously absent when Parliament is in session.
Johari said he would need to come up with something more stringent to improve the attendance of MPs, as they have a duty and responsibility to their constituents and constituency.
He said there were suggestions, including from the former Speaker Tan Sri Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof, who wants the Parliament Standing Orders to be amended to facilitate the implementation of such action.
”I think it is quite reasonable because, at the moment, we don’t have that, meaning MPs are free and easy. After clocking in for a while, they leave, which is not fair,” the former Gurun assemblyman said, adding that he was also willing to improve transparency by putting the MPs attendance record on the Parliament websites.
“But I have to look into the legal part to see whether it is possible or not, but certainly to me personally, yes it should be, but again, as I said, I have to look into the mechanism and the law as well as the Standing Order before such action,” he said at the Concorde Club meeting yesterday.
The Concorde Club is an informal gathering of a group of editors and senior journalists with politicians and key policymakers.
On August 29, Johari was reportedly mulling the idea of docking the allowance of MPs if they were absent in Parliament during sessions as a way to deter absenteeism among the lawmakers.
According to him, sometimes MPs are absent for days, but he does not have the authority to penalise them, although they are paid with MYR500 daily allowances.
