3 February 2020
This morning I attended a PIBG CNY event at SMK Bandar Puchong Jaya B, together with YB Ng Sze Han. I stayed for about 2 hours and then rushed to pay a courtesy call to the MITI minister, YB Darell. The Select Committee on International Relations and Trade will be conducting our first ever hearing this coming Friday and as such we were happy to finally touch base with MITI, before we start business examining MoFA and MITI policies, budget and administration.
My main Parliamentary resolution for 2020 is to run this committee as best as I can, without fear or favour, so to indirectly establish transparency and accountability standards of Pakatan ministries. If Pakatan continues to be slow to carry out institutional reforms, then backbench MPs can and must help the process of reform by putting political pressure via the committee system. The time is now for the backbenchers to act and no longer idly wait and complain about the lack of top down reforms. It is so important to use the committee system to give Parliament a fighting chance to be independent and provide checks and balances to the current excessive executive powers of the cabinet.
Attached are photos of the CNY and also the MITI visit today. I am still nursing a minor sore throat and also muscle and joint pain. Tomorrow I will be attending a lunch meeting with an international reporter and also an event in ISIS, to meet Imran Khan, the PM of Pakistan.