Parliament 08-05-05

Apologies for not being able to blog from parliament today. Was a little busy finishing up some work as well as preparing my "maiden speech" in parliament, should I get the opportunity in the next 2 weeks or so.

Anyway, I stood up on two occasions during question time, hoping to pose supplementary questions to some of the other queries raised. As mentioned before, I'm unlikely to get my chance as supplementary questions during Question Time in the morning are usually limited to 2, and priorities tend to be given to those who are more senior in Parliament. But there's no harm trying I suppose ;-)

REMBAU asked the Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs to state whether the Government will introduce a new measure in tackling the issue of price hike for goods...

Datuk Shahrir Samad highlighted 4 steps which the government is taking, including setting up a special cabinet level anti-inflation taskforce. I had wanted to ask:

Apabila lesen-lesen pembekalan barang-barang hanya diberi kepada syarikat-syarikat yang kurang dan tertentu, ataupun pengimpotan barang-barang dikawal melalui sistem AP, satu situasi "monopoli" akan tertimbul.

Dalam situasi ini, selalunya harga yang dibayar oleh pengguna-pengguna Malaysia, termasuklah kalangan peniaga, akan lebih tinggi.

Adakah langkah-langkah yang perlu diambil kerajaan termasuklah pembukaan industri-industri yang tertentu, termasuklah pembekalan barang-barang seperti makanan, simen, besi, kereta, petrol dan lain-lain untuk menambahkan lagi persaingan supaya harga yang terrendah sekali dapat diperolehi oleh pengguna-pengguna Malaysia?

Subsequently SEPUTEH also asked the Minister of International Trade and Industry to state whether the Ministry will cooperate with the 5 states which are under the administration of DAP-PKR-PAS in order to attract foreign investments... SEPUTEH (Teresa Kok) appeared concerned that she has not been able to set up a meeting with Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (MIDA) despite repeated attempts over the past few weeks.

Datuk Seri Muyihiddin Hussein responded positively to say that investments will continue to be promoted to all states without discrimination.

This time, I was planning to be a little more cheeky, asking:

Adalah amat dibanggakan bahawa Kementerian Perdagangan Antarabangsa dan Industri tidak akan mendiskriminasikan negeri-negeri yang ditadbir oleh DAP, PKR dan PAS.

Akan tetapi, adakah polisi ini disebabkan kebijaksanaan menteri, ataupun polisi keselurahan kerajaan pusat sebab kami mendapati polisi-polisi yang tidak selaras daripada kementerian yang lain seperti dari perlancongan dan juga koperasi dan pembangunan usahawan, di mana kementerian tersebut menyekat wang yang sepatutnya diperuntukkan kepada kerajaan negeri?

Hopefully more interesting stuff tomorrow. One thing I realised though, the written replies have now come back to the MPs on the questions which have not been answered earlier, and it's taking forever to look through them. Hopefully, I'll be able to sieve through some interesting stuff! ;-)