Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Negara president Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar today reminded Cabinet members to respect the parliamentary institution by attending question-and-answer sessions for their respective ministries.
He said as the upper house of Parliament, the Senate’s sanctity must be respected, and the presence of ministers is important to clarify matters raised by senators.
“I would like to remind here that if the prime minister and both the deputy prime ministers can attend, why not the ministers?
“Is it because they think this place is too lowly for the ministers? This is the upper house of Parliament,” he said when deputy tourism, arts and culture minister Khairul Firdaus Akbar Khan was answering questions in the Dewan Negara today.
Earlier, Senator Amir Ghazali, in his supplementary question, wanted some clarification on the position of the minister Tiong King Sing, whom he claimed had not attended question-and-answer proceedings in the last eight months.
Wan Junaidi also reproached Khairul, whom he said was not providing specific answers required to matters raised to the ministry.
“Yang Berhormat (Khairul), you are mostly answering only on tourism products. What is being asked is about the conduct of tourism players and not merely tourism products. I hope the ministry can prepare more satisfactory answers,” he said.
