KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 — The First Meeting of the Fourth Session of the 15th Parliament, which concluded yesterday, marked an important milestone in Malaysia's Parliamentary democracy with several bills passed in 18 days.
One of the key decisions made during this session was to separate Parliament from the civil service. With this change, the Parliamentary Service regains its autonomy after 33 years, restoring its institutional, administrative, and financial autonomy.
This comes after the passing of the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2025, which forms the foundation of the Parliamentary Services Bill.
It was passed by a majority voice votes after being debated by 35 government and Opposition MPs.
Its passage marks a significant milestone in the Madani government’s institutional reform efforts, aiming to restore the nation's governance framework by ensuring Parliament functions as a truly independent and sovereign institution.
In his closing speech, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul said the new bill will ensure a clear separation of powers between the executive and legislative bodies while granting Parliament autonomy to determine its legislative direction independently.
This session was also marked by a historic milestone: the Malaysian Media Council Bill 2024, which aims to establish a self-regulatory body to safeguard the interests of the media and media practitioners, received majority support from MPs after being debated by 18 members.
Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil described the Bill as a significant achievement for the Malaysian media industry, after over half a century of discussions on its establishment.
He also called it a major victory for media freedom in Malaysia, as the idea of the bill was first proposed in 1973.
During the session, which began on February 3, the Dewan Rakyat also passed the motion of thanks for the royal address and several other motions, including one to debate the Auditor-General's Report 1/2025.
Other bills that were passed included the Fire Services (Amendment) Bill 2025, the Government Service Efficiency Commitment Bill 2025, the Employees Provident Fund (Amendment) Bill 2025, and the Bernama (Amendment) Bill 2024.
Others included the Supplementary Supply Bill (2024) 2025 for additional expenditure on services amounting to RM20,191,299,500 from the Consolidated Fund, as well as the Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) Bill.
Meanwhile, nine laws that were passed during the Parliament sitting held from October 14 to December 12 last year have received the consent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
The laws are the Supply Act 2025 (Budget 2025), the Finance Act 2024; the Measures for the Collection, Administration, and Enforcement of Tax Act 2024; and the Labuan Business Activity Tax (Amendment) (No.2) Act 2024.
Other laws passed are the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (Amendment) Act 2024; the Communications and Multimedia (Amendment) Act 2024; the Water Services Industry (Amendment) Act 2024, the Penal Code (Amendment) (No.2) Act 2024, and the Criminal Procedure Code (Amendment) Act (No.2) 2024.
This Parliamentary session also had briefings by ministers to clarify briefing sessions to clarify current issues, including by Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, who clarified the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012.
During a a briefing session regarding petroleum activities in Sarawak involving Petronas and Petroleum Sarawak Berhad, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said that the Federal government acknowledged Sarawak's aspirations to venture into the oil industry in the state.
— Bernama
