Commenting on remarks that the Dewan Negara president Rais Yatim made recently, Bastian Pius Vendargon and SN Nair said the ban might go against the legal principle of presumption of innocence until proven guilty.
They said a lot of thought needed to be put into the proposal before any move to amend the law.
“That sort of legislation is not generally acceptable,” said Vendargon, a constitutional expert.
Nair noted that a basic principle of Malaysia’s criminal justice system is to presume a defendant’s innocence until all appeal processes are exhausted.
Both lawyers told FMT they were also concerned over constituents’ loss of representation when MPs affected by the rule are unable to perform their duties as elected representatives.
“That will be unfair to both the MPs facing charges and their constituents,” said Nair.
Last Thursday, Rais said amendments to the Houses of Parliament (Privileges and Powers) Act were being reviewed and that the matter regarding MPs facing charges had been discussed in a special meeting on parliament transformation.
Nair said the proposal ran afoul of Article 48 of the Federal Constitution, which underlines the factors that would disqualify an MP from being a member of the lower house, and that he believed amending the law to pursue the proposal would require a constitutional amendment.
Vendargon disagreed, saying a constitutional amendment might not be required.
He said he was “not in full support of the proposal” but added that he saw it as “undesirable” to have MPs face serious criminal charges in court.
“There’s this element of undesirability of having parliamentarians who have to be in court to defend themselves in long trials as opposed to being in Parliament and at their constituencies carrying out their duties,” he said.
“So, we have to find an answer. I’m not in favour of a blanket situation where you say they cannot go to Parliament. But there’s got to be a better way.”
He also said an MP failing to attend sittings for a certain period for whatever reason could be deemed to have vacated his seat.