Parliament speaker condemns low attendance at parliament session

By Khaing Roe La 13 Jun 2019

Khaing Roe La | DMG

13 June, Sittwe

The speaker of state parliament U San Kyaw Hla condemned members of cabinet because few members attended the parliament session even though it was convened on 13 June at the behest of the Arakan State government.

The regional government called a meeting for “Arakan State’s additional budget allocation bill for the 2018-2019 budget year”, only three ministers attended the parliament session. The rest of ministers of the cabinet including chief minister U Nyi Pu were not present at the parliament session.

“What I want to say is that the cabinet needs to be responsible for attending the meeting which is convened according to the government’s request. If they don’t show up, it looks like a wedding without the parents of the bride. It implies that the bride’s parents don’t approve of the wedding or the groom. Similarly, we also have to take into account that if cabinet members are going to be disgruntled with the results of the meeting they will not turn up,” U San Kyaw Hla said.

He added that state MPs and the cabinet should have respect for state parliament sessions.

“They should attend the parliament session with great reverence, especially the meeting for the budget. I’d like to urge all of you not to repeat such a situation in the future,” U San Kyaw Hla said.

The parliament session was attended by only 28 members out of 47 who are entitled to attend the parliament session, it was a session with the lowest level attendance, he added.

“Both state MPs and cabinet members need to respect the parliament session. The government and the parliament check and balance each other. So, all MPs need to attend the parliament session although there is no law that states parliament members must attend each and every session. Every parliament member is responsible for attending meetings,” U San Kyaw Hla said.

The DMG phoned U Win Myint, spokesperson of the Arakan State government about the rest of ministers’ failure to attend the parliament session, but he refused to give comment.