75% OF FAP MPees MIA from Parleement, Voting on Bills Forced to Be Abandoned! WTF!

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

75% OF MPS ABSENT FROM PARLIAMENT DURING IMPORTANT VOTES ON POTENTIAL LAWS

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8 Jul 2014 - 8:30pm








While parliamentary sessions may not be the most entertaining thing for regular Singaporeans to watch and follow, when taxpayers are paying MPs $15,000 a month to 'represent' our voices, it is shocking to know that up to 75% of our elected MPs are skipping parliament.

Yesterday, two votes on proposed bills had to be stopped halfway because it was pointed out that there were not enough MPs in parliament to meet the minimum required number of votes as stated in the constitution.

Shockingly, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Charles Chong, who was co-ordinating the session did not even notice the high rate of absenteeism until it was pointed out by NMP Eugene Tan.

Not only did the error occur once, but it occurred twice in one day and in both situations, it was NMP Tan who had to point out the discrepancy.

The first occasion was at 5:30 when the house was voting on the Radiation Prevention Bill. Voting was occurring just shortly after a 20minute break.

At that time, Deputy speaker Chong rung the division bell in order to call in any other MPs who were still outside the chamber and had not returned from the break on time.
Then, a shortage of MPs occurred again in the evening when the Copyright Act was being put to vote.

Again, it was NMP Tan who pointed out the low attendance and so parliament was adjourned early so that the bill could be passed the following day.

Eugene Tan is a constitutional and administrative law professor in SMU and he was the one that had to remind the speaker to check if there was a quorum (the minimum number of MPs to pass a bill: 1/4 of all MPs)
When Mr Chong did a head count, he found that there was not in fact enough members to pass a bill. If NMP Tan had not pointed out the lack of attendance, these bills may have been passed unconstitutionally.

What is most surprising is that not even a quarter of MPs stayed for the full parliamentary session. Do you know if your elected MP was there? Do you think our taxpayer money is well spent paying MPs $15,000 a month just to skip parliament?

Donch you dare threaten to vote me out in the next GE! *chey*

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