She suggested that four hours every Wednesday afternoon be allocated during Dewan Rakyat meetings.

Her suggestion was made in response to the proposal for special “opposition days” by DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang. Under his proposal, opposition MPs will get to decide on the parliamentary business to be transacted.

Maha, a fellow of the Jeffrey Cheah Institute, said Lim’s suggestions would require other rules and processes to be amended.

She said the government could influence the fixing of the days within the parliamentary calendar. In other countries, she said, “opposition days” have been fixed to fall during inconvenient periods, resulting in a poor turnout of MPs.

Subang MP Wong Chen said the number of proposed “opposition days” should be doubled.

“The UK has an average of 20 opposition days for an average of 224 (parliamentary) sittings per year. Since we have an average of 70 sittings per year, I would suggest for a start that six days (be allocated),” he said.

He also suggested that the opposition agenda should be confined to the tabling of private member’s bills and motions filed by opposition MPs.

Former Klang MP Charles Santiago urged Dewan Rakyat Speaker Johari Abdul to make it a priority to improve the functioning of select committees first, as they have not been functioning well for the past two years.

He suggested that MPs be trained on how to conduct select committee hearings so they could be more effective in scrutinising the ministries that they observe.

“If they get the select committee right, then Parliament will become very good,” he said. “Then you can avoid all the shouting matches (among MPs).”