KUALA LUMPUR: His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia will open the First Meeting of the Fourth Session of the 15th Parliament on Monday.
Sultan Ibrahim is scheduled to deliver the royal address with both Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara holding their meetings simultaneously.
The royal address is expected to touch on various key matters, including national development and Malaysia’s role as the ASEAN Chair this year.
The opening ceremony will begin with the arrival of His Majesty at the Parliament Square where he will then inspect a guard-of-honour mounted by officers and men from the Royal Malay Regiment Battalion from Sungai Besi Camp.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, his two deputies, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof, Cabinet members and the head of foreign delegations are also scheduled to attend the ceremony.
Based on the calendar on the Parliament’s official website, this Parliament sitting will last for 18 days with the main focus to be the debate on the royal address by members of Parliament for seven days from Feb 4 and then the winding-up by the relevant ministries from Feb 19 to 25.
Debates on the bills and other government matters will take place over the final six days of the meeting starting from Feb 26.
The Dewan Negara is scheduled to sit for 13 days, beginning March 3.
Among the key agenda items in this Dewan Rakyat sitting is the tabling for the second reading of several bills, including the Mufti (Federal Territories) Bill 2024, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (Amendment) Bill 2024, the Malaysian Media Council Bill 2024, and the BERNAMA (Amendment) Bill 2024.
Additionally, the White Paper on the Ageing Nation Agenda is also expected to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat, focusing on medium- and long-term socio-economic development plans as Malaysia approaches ageing nation status by 2030 and aged nation status by 2044.
Meanwhile, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul said that this Dewan Rakyat meeting would be conducted more strictly, with no tolerance for political manoeuvring among members of Parliament.
Nevertheless, he expressed confidence that all members of Parliament would demonstrate professionalism and maturity in discussing issues concerning the people.
“Parliamentary discussions must focus more on national development and the well-being of the people. I will also be firmer and will not allow political games to persist during the sitting.
“The sitting should focus on the contents of the royal address, which I expect will touch on national development, given that last year we saw positive economic indicators as well as Malaysia’s ASEAN Chairmanship and the 46th ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) General Assembly,” he told Bernama.
