Good morning from Parliament

19th of July – Good morning from Parliament! Yes, we don’t have sittings on Friday but I am back here this morning for the National Forum on Sustainability, CSR & SDG.

Yesterday, before the Parliament session ended, the Public Accounts Committee members had a meeting to sort out our timetable. PAC will be holding many meetings in the recess months of August, September and early October. Parliament resits on 7th October.

For me, I will have a packed next 80 days, in addition to PAC meetings, I have working trips to Taiwan, Germany and Thailand. Of late and near future, my trips overseas are to further ASEAN, climate change, UN SDGs and geo-political issues. Because domestic reforms are so slow and facing severe lack of political will, I have decided to shift my policy focus to global issues to remain sane.

Parliamentary reforms are not going well at all. We were suppose to have new 11 select committees in March. That didn’t happen. We then decided to ask much less, requesting to have only four new select committees in the session that ended yesterday. That did not happen. Still no amendments to any draconian laws. No amendments to strengthen anti corruption laws.

Since my office has completed most of the domestic reform papers, and while we wait for those in power to implement the manifesto, my office will shift focus on complex global policy issues in the next few months.