KUALA LUMPUR, (Bernama) - The first meeting of the Dewan Rakyat on Monday is expected to get more attention, especially after being speculated as going to be hotter than ever.
More political chats among the people can also be expected should the one-hour Q&A (question-and-answer) session of the Dewan Rakyat sitting can be watched live on national television as stated by Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Shabery Cheek on his Facebook site recently.
According to the Dewan Rakyat's calendar, the first meeting will begin with the appointment of the Speaker, the swearing-in of Members of Parliament (MPs) and the tabling of a motion to appoint two Deputy Speakers.
All the three ceremonies must be completed before the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah officially open the meeting on Tuesday.
There may be a contest in the appointment of the Speaker and Deputy Speakers as the government is expected to retain Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia as the Speaker and Beluran MP Datuk Ronald Kiandee as Deputy Speaker, while the opposition is keen nominate former Federal Court judge Datuk Abdul Kadir Sulaiman as the Speaker and Tumpat MP Datuk Kamaruddin Jaafar as Deputy Speaker.
One of the Deputy Speaker posts also fell vacant after Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar was appointed as Deputy Home Minister.
When asked whether he is ready to supervise the upcoming hot debates between the MPs in the Dewan Rakyat again, Pandikar Amin seemed to disagree with perception that the meeting would be heated up more than ever.
"For me, the meetings in 2008, 2010 and right before the last general election have seen the peak of the MPs' antics that I had to deal with. This is because the personalities of the MPs who will attend the meetings of the 13th Parliament are almost the same with the MPs in the previous parliament.
"Yes, there will be some new faces, but we cannot conclude that their presence will cause the debates in the Dewan to be 'terrible' than ever before," he told Bernama when contacted.
He said no particular MPs had shown a potential to showcase an unexpected leadership skills in the Dewan Rakyat.
"Maybe they are more 'gentleman' ... maybe they will show a good example when debating," he said, referring to some new opposition MPs tipped to enliven the meeting, such as Rafizi Ramli (PKR-Pandan), Nashrudin Hassan Tantawi (PAS-Temerloh), Nik Abduh Nik Aziz (PAS-Pasir Mas) and Stephen Wong (DAP-Sandakan).
For many political observers, the new faces will definitely make aggressive attacks and criticism against BN.
Based on that, Pandikar Amin said the government back-benchers should play a more effective role to defend the government.
He also hoped that veteran MPs would continue playing an active role as failure to do so would be detrimental to BN.
The 13th general election is expected to be a hot topic of debates throughout the meeting, besides issues on the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA),security, custodial death and the election manifesto.
Attention will also be given to the new 'head' of the Malaysian Parliament Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, after he was appointed as Minister in the Prime Minister in charge of Parliamentary affairs.
The first meeting will also see the implementation of some reforms, including the use of e-books and audio visual, especially in the presentation of MP reports, which aimed at reducing the use of paper in the Parliament as well as the ensuring smooth running of the meeting.
Three new bills are expected to be tabled at the meeting, namely Islamic Religious Administration Bill (Federal Territories) 2013, Syariah Court Procedures (Federal Territories) (Amendment) Bill 2013 and the Syariah Criminal Procedures (Federal Territories) (Amendment) Bill 2013.
The meeting will still be held in the temporary Dewan Rakyat hall as the upgrading works on the original hall have yet to be completed.
The meeting will also run as usual from 10am to 5.30pm, with a one and a half hour break from 1pm.
The Senate sitting will follow from July 22 to Aug 8.
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