Zaid pans ‘poorly drafted’ Parliamentary Services Bill

Zaid pans ‘poorly drafted’ Parliamentary Services Bill

PETALING JAYA: Former law minister Zaid Ibrahim today criticised the proposed Parliamentary Services Bill 2025, saying it is poorly drafted and gives no clue whatsoever about its purpose.

Zaid said Pakatan Harapan leaders had previously told the people that the new legislation was needed to ensure “some evidence” of Parliament’s independence from the executive.

“But the result is none of that,” the former Kota Bharu MP said in a post on X.

“As law and institutional reform minister Azalina Othman Said touted, the government is committed to the principle of the separation of powers. However, all we can find is rearranging the current staff to new designations.”

“There is nothing to show that the government is interested in providing a statutory framework where better quality staff will be employed with better pay under the new parliamentary services (law) outside the current civil service terms,” he added.

Azalina tabled the bill in the Dewan Rakyat on Monday along with a constitutional amendment bill for first reading. The second reading is scheduled for next Tuesday.

Based on the Blue Bill Book, the Parliamentary Services Bill aims to establish a parliamentary service council, chaired by the Senate president, with the Dewan Rakyat speaker serving as co-chairman.

Other members include the deputy president of the Senate, two deputy speakers of the Dewan Rakyat, two senators, four MPs, the clerks of both Houses, and three ex-officio members: the secretary-general of the Treasury, the director-general of public services, and the chief administrator of Parliament.

Zaid however claimed that the bill lacked safeguards to ensure that council members uphold professionalism when recruiting the clerk, administrator, and other staff without reference to the public services department.

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“The mother of all reforms is another musical chair to lull Malaysians into believing we are a parliamentary democracy,” he said, referring to the term used by Azalina when tabling the bill.