On 11th July 2012, my classmates and I went to an educational trip to parliament of Malaysia accompanied by our lecturer, Dr. Muhammad Fuzi Omar. Only 39 students from our class joined this trip. This trip was suggested by our lecturer in order to help us understand what we learnt in class. We departed from IIUM at 9.00 am by bus. We had our breakfast prepared by the committees before our departure.
Around 9.20 am we arrived safely at the parliament. The Deer Park attracted my attention upon entering the gate because I did not know the existence of that park at our parliament area. We spent our time taking photos for our own memento while waiting for permission to enter the Parliament House.
All visitors must go through security check before entering Parliament House. We are not allowed to bring in all electronic items such as digital camera, recorder, mp3 player, cellular phone and tablet PC. All those items must be left at a counter at the entrance of the Parliament House.
After that, we were guided by a Parliament Staff to the Senate (Dewan Negara). We were given an hour to look, see and hear the meeting amongst Members of the Senate. The Senate is the place where Senators have their meeting and is smaller than the House of Representatives (Dewan Rakyat). But then, we were told that now the Senate is in process of renovation, so the meeting of Senators and meeting of Members of Parliament will be held in the House of Representatives. The meeting amongst the Senators is presides by the president of the senate, the hon. Senator Tan Sri Abu Zahar Bin Dato’ Nika Ujang. There were many issues discussed in the meeting on that day. Some of the issues that I had opportunity to hear are issues on Law Academy, traffic summon, diplomatic connection with Sudan, wages for maid and project for contractors. Unfortunately, I can’t hear the discussion in the Senate clearly. Maybe there are some technical problems with the sound system.
At 11.00 am, we left the House of Representatives, and were brought by the Parliament Staff to the Senate for a briefing along with Question and Answer session. The Parliament Staff told us about the structure of the Parliament which consists of the Senate and the House of Representatives. We learned about differences between the Senate and the House of Representatives in terms of its role, mode of appointment and criteria to be a member of the house and total number of members. The Senate comprises of 70 members known as Senators. 26 Members of the Senate are elected by the State Legislative Assembly to represent 13 states, each state is represented by two members. The other Members are appointed by His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on the advice of the Prime Minister. According to the Parliament Staff, Senators must aged of 30 years old and above. The term office for a Senator is three years and he or she shall not hold office for more that two terms. The President of the Senate is elected by the Members of the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 222 members who were elected in general election. Every member represents a parliamentary constituency. The tenure of office for a member is five years or until the dissolution of Parliament. The parliament staff also told us about the parliamentary sitting time. Parliament sittings begin at 10.00 am until 1.00 pm and will resume at 2.30 pm and continue until 5.30 pm. The Speaker may extend the time of sitting after 5.30 pm so as to complete the business on that day. The Parliament Staff said that the parliamentary sitting once break a record ended at 3.00 am.
We were very glad with the Parliament Staff who conducted the briefing session because he answered our questions very well even though he is a new officer there for only two months. We left the parliament around 12.45 pm and stopped by at a restaurant having lunch before we arrived at IIUM around 2.30 pm.
This visit is very beneficial in helping us to understand and get clear view of what parliament is. Hence, I would like to suggest for another visit to Parliament of Malaysia, so we will be able to join the meeting in the House of Representatives.
