KUALA LUMPUR – In light of increased allocations for the legislature under Budget 2025, Khoo Poay Tiong (Kota Melaka-PH) has expressed that he hoped the additional funds could encourage reforms for parliamentary processes.
According to Khoo, Putrajaya increased allocations to RM180 million for next year.
During the Budget 2025 debate at the Dewan Rakyat today, Khoo recommended improving current parliamentary debate protocols to allow detailed discussions in the lower House.
“For example, we are debating the budget in the main chambers.
“I see in other countries, the debates are more specific in nature and the discussions were accommodated by holding sessions in more than one chamber,” Khoo told the Dewan Rakyat.
He also proposed a longer parliamentary session and suggested it be extended to 100 days annually, which he contends would allow the government to pass more laws.
This suggestion, Khoo mentioned, would allow the government to update the existing legislation which is currently unable to tackle modern issues.
“Because we also have long breaks between parliamentary sittings, perhaps in that gap we can allow special sittings for a week or two.
“This would allow the government to be answerable to any ongoing issues at that time,” Khoo added.
On Friday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who is also finance minister, tabled Budget 2025 with an allocation of RM421 billion, of which RM335 billion is for operating expenditure and RM86 billion for development expenditure, excluding RM2 billion contingency savings. – October 21, 2024