State Assembly sitting report

First of all, i would like to apologize for not updating my blog for more than a week. Was a bit busy attending the assembly and running around. Even went all the way to Pekan last Saturday for a PAS ceramah. Unlike Parliament where i can easily update my blog during the proceeding, i can't do that in the state assembly for the simple reason that the chambers are not equipped with WIFI. Internet is still quite alien to most of the BN chaps. When i spoke on the need for the state government to make the proceeding live over the internet, i doubt few have any clues on what i was talking about.

I also like to thank all of you who have given your comments on the previous post. I have read every comment and took note of it.

Well, in this sitting, we scored a moral victory when we succeeded to force the Speaker to accept our proposal to have a rotation system for the Q&A. We have walked out twice in the past to protest the unfair system where non of us got a chance to pose question in the one and a half hour session. At last, they felt the pressure and make some changes.

I made a few points in my debate to thank the Royal Address.

1) The state have to diversify our economic sectors as we can't be over-dependent on the manufacturing sector anymore as demands for our exported goods have gone down due to the current economic climate. There are a lot of talks on the bio-technology and pharmaceutical industry in the Nilai area. Well, these are new sectors which we should develop. I stressed on the need to develop new supporting industries for this sectors among our locals. The state government should find ways to encourage more R&D to promote innovations and creativity among NS folks. We should not just be users of technology but we must strive to be creator of technology.

2) The state should create a job-matching center in all districts to make it easier for unemployed to register themselves with the Labour Department. I also acknowledged the dilemma faced by the government, ie; although we want to reduce the numbers of foreign workers but at the same time many locals refused to take up "dirty jobs" even jobs like restaurant workers.

3) I also called on the state government to liberalize the housing sector as it is an important sector in the economy. I urged the government to put in place an "auto-release" mechanism for unsold Bumiputra lots. That means after one year a project was launched, if there are still unsold Bumi lots, it should be opened automatically to other buyers. This is to speed up transactions in the industry and the faster the sales can be executed, the better for the government as there are revenues to be collected and the revenue can be channelled for welfare purposes for the needy. I mentioned that the government should look at the proposal as a "win-win" situation and not as a "zero-sum game" perspective at the expense of the Bumiputra.

As Opposition leader, I focused my debate more on policy issues and let my other colleagues to raise up problems faced on the ground and the poor delivery system. Of course, many of my colleagues gave a bashing to the various front line departments such as the Majlis Perbandaran Seremban, JKR, Syarikat Air NS and the Welfare Department.

The Royal Address is a policy speech to give a general view of the direction of the state government. Hence, the motion to thank the Royal Address is a forum for ADUN to debate on policy matters and criticize the government of the day on their various weaknesses. After hearing our debates, one new ADUN from UMNO (YB Chembong) started off his debate with the remark that he just want to focus on "thanking" the state government as it is a motion of thanks! Can you imagine the standard of BN YBs?

I'm taking a short break to Krabi, Thailand for 3 days starting tomorrow. Will be back by Thursday. Will give your more info from the assembly when i'm back. .