Legal training needed for MPs under new government
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Htet Nadi/Thant Zin (NP News) - February 20
The new government needs to provide legal training to lawmakers to help them understand the legislative process systematically and to ensure good oversight of the government, according to legal experts and political analysts contacted by The Statesman.
Currently, the parliament will be convened in mid-March. There are a total of 586 parliamentarians; including military service members and elected parliamentarians in the two chambers of the Pyithu Hluttaw and Amyotha Hluttaw.
A political analyst said that only a small number of these representatives have experience in the legislative role of the parliament.
“It is true that members of parliament have some knowledge of the law. However, those with strong legal expertise have not been able to enter parliament. I do not know how many legally knowledgeable individuals have entered parliament now. I am not certain about the exact number, but there are some,” he said.
Therefore, an official from the Ministry of Legal Affairs said that they want to provide training to parliamentarians to ensure they are aware of the information needed to become a law.
“I want to train parliamentarians on what is necessary to enact a law. Let me give a simple example. When a bill is approved, there are three possible outcomes: the president may sign it; the president may refuse to sign it; or the president may sign it with comments. In any case, a law comes into effect seven days after its approval. Once a law has been enacted, the relevant ministry drafts the necessary rules. The president's actions – signing, declining to sign, or adding comments–affect on the rule-drafting stage. Therefore, to maintain balance, the ability of parliamentarians to discuss and negotiate is very important. We need more parliamentarians who can thoroughly debate and carefully plan legislation,” he said.
However, the political analyst said that so far, no parliamentarians have been seen attending legal training courses.
“I haven’t seen any training in almost all political parties. I heard that one organization have arranged for workshops before the parliament and invited legal experts from India, China, Thailand, and other countries to provide training,” he added.
He said that during the last two terms of the democratic government, most bills were submitted to the parliament by the relevant government departments, and there were weaknesses in the part where parliamentarians themselves initiated the submission. –