KUALA LUMPUR: The special Parliament sitting scheduled to take place at the end of the month has been labeled 'a farce' by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Describing it as nothing more than a briefing on matters that have already been made public, he said the Parliament sitting that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had in mind when he called for it to reconvene will now be a "olok olok" (farcical) Parliament.
The sitting, he said, was not in accordance with the Federal Constitution.
"They (the parliament) are not accepting motions and they are not allowing debates. This upcoming session is basically a briefing session on matters we already know.
"This is not in accordance with our Constitution. If the government wants to do a briefing, they could just prepare a White Paper for members of parliament but this is not happening either.
"The King said the parliament should reconvene before the State of Eemergency ends but they (the government) is doing a mock Parliament instead of a real one," he said.
Dr Mahathir was speaking at a press conference with the Parti Pejuang Tanahair leadership on Zoom today.
Earlier, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun, in a statement, announced that the Lower House will sit in full session for the first time this year for 15 days from Sept 6 until Sept 30.
As for the second session for 2021, Azhar said the Dewan Rakyat will sit for 32 days from Oct 25 until Dec 16.
Previously, Azhar said Parliament will sit for a "special sitting" on Monday July 26 to Thursday July 29 and again on Monday August 2 at 10am.
Dr Mahathir said he has submitted a motion to the Speaker to find out why the government decided to hold the Parliament session so close to the end of the current Emergency period instead of earlier.
He said Pejuang secretary-general Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah had also submitted a motion for the House to discuss the possibility of forming a National Recovery Council (NRC).
However, the Langkawi MP said both motions were rejected by the Dewan Rakyat Speaker.
"He (Speaker) wrote reply to my request for my motion to be included. He replied that the decision to allow a motion into the House must be made by the Agong.
"So, if he knows the Agong must make this decision, he (Azhar) should not make his own decision. He should ask the Agong.
"From his letter, it was clear that he rejected my motion without referring to the King and he (Azhar) obviously does not have the authority to do so," he claimed.
Asked if he and the Pejuang leaders would boycott the upcoming Parliament briefing, Dr Mahathir said they have yet to decide on the matter.
"We want to know if motions will be debated. If yes, we will attend. If not, we will have to think about it first. No decision has been made yet."