To open up the hearings to the public, Ariff said Standing Order 85 needed to be amended. On top of that, he said, there was the Parliament (Power and Privileges) Act, which had a provision that tended to limit public hearings.

He said until any PAC report was presented, the evidence heard before the committee would have to remain confidential.

“But the idea is clear. We want to open up some proceedings. Citizens will be interested in listening, viewing and even contributing.

“At the moment, I need to think of the alternatives. The general principle is that hearings should be confidential, with a possibility of opening up proceedings.

“Or, as some countries have done, make the proceedings open, subject to the exceptions,” he told reporters after a book launch in Parliament today.

The PAC yesterday filed a motion to suspend the rule that prevents it from opening proceedings to the public. However, its deputy chairman, Wong Kah Woh, said this would not apply to proceedings touching on security matters.

On the issue of research officers, Ariff said there was an insufficient number at present and he wanted to increase it.

“We have 13 researchers, which is not enough. Parliament is a place where many topics are discussed. We really need people who are experts in several areas to feed information and data to lawmakers.

“If you want world standards, 13 is not a good number. I just came back from Australia; they have more than 80 researchers helping.

“Of course, we have limited resources but we should aim for world standards. If we can’t do that, we should at least aim for regional standards. We are way behind. Many countries have more researchers than us.”

On the number of officers being targeted, Ariff said: “It is difficult for me to say. Quantity is one thing, quality is another. We welcome good brains.”