Committee of Rules and Mandates passes ‘hot potato’ to next term

The Committee of Rules and Mandates of the Legislative Assembly (AL) decided in a meeting yesterday that the discussion about whether AL Committee meetings should be open to the public will be held during the AL’s upcoming seventh term.
This decision was conveyed by committee chairman Chui Sai Peng to the media in a press briefing after the session.
Chui justified the decision to the media by observing that the current AL mandates that terms are to be drawn to a close in less than one month’s time. This matter involves changes to important rules and procedures that will require lengthy discussion and a consensus to be reached.
“As this is a process that requires a lot of time [and other conditions that we do not have at the moment], we will leave a note for the future committee to take this into account,” Chui said. He added that, “Of course we cannot require that the [next committee] will address this matter, so what we are doing is leaving a suggestion so the committee can address potential changes to the rules in the future.”
The chairman also explained that the petition submitted to the AL by a local resident was very precisely outlined, and called for amending the AL procedures so that several committees’ meetings, that are by default held behind closed doors like the plenary meetings, should be carried out publicly. This would allow the media and members of the public to have access to the full content of the meetings and discussions.
Chui also said that another factor that would contribute to the lengthy process is the fact that the Committee of Rules and Mandates thinks that a matter of such importance should not be decided only by the committee members.
According to them, the discussion should be broader and involve all the legislators who compose the AL.
Previously, several lawmakers — namely José Pereira Coutinho and Sulu Sou — urged the AL to open the committees’ meetings to the public as a matter of transparency from the AL and the government.
Late last month, while submitting his political platform to the elections, incumbent lawmaker Pereira Coutinho said that this matter would continue to be one of his political battles.