Malaysia reconvened parliament on July 26, seven months after a state of emergency was declared on Jan. 12, 2021.
The last time the country's House of Representative met was on Dec. 17, 2020, while the Senate met on Dec. 29.
This latest parliamentary meeting from July 26 to Aug. 2 is considered a special sitting, as Malaysia is still under a state of emergency.
The focus of the sitting will be on containing Covid-19, vaccination progress, recovery plans, as well as emergency ordinance, as reflected in the Order Paper.
All 220 MPs were allowed to attend the parliamentary sitting in-person, including those who have yet to be vaccinated, the Malay Mail reported.
However, MPs have to go through Covid-19 tests before they are able to attend.
MPs tested positive
However, not all members of the house were in attendance.
Two MPs ended up testing positive for Covid-19, according to Malaysiakini.
The Star reported that one of them is UMNO's chief Zahid Hamidi.
It added that Zahid is asymptomatic and is currently isolating himself at home.
Malaysiakini further reported as of July 23, 12 parliament staff were Covid-19 positive and 58 more were quarantined as they were close contacts.
The official tally for Covid-19 cases in Malaysia hit the 1 million mark, at 1,013,438, on July 25.
No voting in parliament
As the reconvened parliamentary session is a special session under the emergency order, there will not be any voting or debate.
Malaysiakini reported that several MPs questioned the decision to not allow a debate.
"If there is no debate, no voting session (by MPs), then the executive can do all they want without a thorough check and balance," UMNO's Secretary-General Ahmad Maslan said.
Several other MPs, including former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim, spoke out against current prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin for not having a debate or vote in parliament, South China Morning Post reported.
The argument was over technicalities that affected the ability to vote and debate.
Takiyuddin Hassan, the de facto law minister, said the various emergency ordinances enacted since Jan. 12 were revoked on July 21 and would not be renewed after their expiry on Aug. 1.
Opposition MPs then insisted that the emergency ordinances can only be annulled through a vote in parliament.
Their insistence was to reinstate voting in parliament.
However, Takiyuddin said the revocation meant such action was no longer necessary, and this does away with the need to vote on the issue of the annulment of emergency ordinances in the first place.
No debate in parliament
Anwar, leader of the three-party Pakatan Harapan alliance, also pointed out that the king in his earlier decrees had called for a full parliamentary debate on the emergency and the government’s Covid-19 policies.
Takiyuddin had earlier said Muhyiddin has been given the sole prerogative to decide the order of business during the session having received Sultan Abdullah’s consent for a special sitting.
Deputy speaker Rashid Hasnon clarified that there will not be a debate as there are no motions in parliament, but MPs can ask questions pertaining to Covid-19 to ministers and deputy ministers during the five-day sitting.
She said that could be considered a debate, Malay Mail reported.
Muhyiddin was supposed to speak when parliament started, but could not do so and had to wait for over an hour after the siting began.
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