Haris Ibrahim: Best first-term MP by far to emerge from the 12th GE

[pywong]

Best first-term MP by far to emerge from the 12th GE
May 18, 2010

For me, it came down to two individuals and try as I did, I could not pick a winner between the two.

YB Tony Pua and YB Khalid Samad.

Why?

I’ll share my reasons for my choice later.

What about you?

Who’s your No.1 first-term MP that has emerged from the 12th GE, and why do you say so? Haris Ibrahim. (http://harismibrahim.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/best-first-term-mp-by-far-to-emerge-from-the-12th-ge/)

[pywong]

..and the best first-term MPs to emerge from the 12th GE are…
May 26, 2010
51 of you responded with comments to my post ‘Best first-term MP by far to emerge from the 12th GE’.

I went through those comments and treated each positive mention of any first-time MP as a vote for the same.

Here’s the list, with votes for each in brackets.

1. Khalid Samad (29)

2. Tony Pua (23)

3. Dr. D. Jeyakumar (5)

4. Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin (4)

5. Charles Santiago (3)

6. Lim Lip Eng (3)

7. R. Sivarasa (2)

8. Nurul Izzah (2)

9. Dr. Dzulkefly Ahmad (2)

10. Khalid Ibrahim (1)

11. Yusmadi Yusof (1)

12. Siti Zailah Muhd Yusoff ( Rantau Panjang ) (1)

13. Liew Chin Tong (1)

14. Jeff Ooi (1)

One individual who is not an MP but got so many positive mentions, if she was an MP, she’d have polled third spot.

That was Hannah Yeoh.

Zaid, too, was spoken of positively by some of you although he is not an MP.

Finally, newly minted Sibu MP Wong Ho Leng was also mentioned.

People, this wasn’t a ‘for the heck of it’ exercise.

We are working on a criteria for candidate selection for the 13th GE.

Share your thoughts on what qualities go to make a good MP.

Bear this in mind, though.

Many people confuse the function of an MP with that of a local councillor.

It is not the function of an MP to look into the state of drains at the local market place, or potholes.

In my view, an MP’s function is to scrutinise Bills that the government is planning to or has tabled in Parliament, understand the impact and implications of proposed laws and policies that are to be implemented, alert his constituents of any adverse laws and policies that are being contemplated, get their mandate on the same wherever possible and act on the wishes and directions of his constituents in relation thereto.

Please, we really could use your input. Haris Ibrahim. (http://harismibrahim.wordpress.com/2010/05/26/and-the-best-first-term-mps-to-emerge-from-the-12th-ge-are/#comments)

[Greg Lopez]

Good day,

Some observations and comments.

1. If Parliament is ineffective, can any of the MPs be considered effective?

2. Haris noted the functions of an MP to scrutinize bills.

(i) What are there evidence of MPs actually challenging the bills (Hansard?) and following from that when bills were reversed (e.g. Amendment to employment Act) or proposed tabling of GST - were it not from public pressure.

(ii) are there complementary ways to evaluate the performance of MPs?

3. Criteria for selection of MPs.
I like the PSM way of doing it. They have a nice set of criteria.

Regards
Greg

[pywong]

Good day,

3. Criteria for selection of MPs.
I like the PSM way of doing it. They have a nice set of criteria.

Greg, Can you post their criteria here?