Roshinee launches second round of signature drive under 'Dilarang Ponteng Parlimen' campaign this Sunday

SHAH ALAM - Political activist Roshinee Mookaiah will be holding a second round of her citizen-led signature collection session this Sunday, April 26 as part of her ongoing campaign pushing for greater accountability among Members of Parliament (MPs) who are absent from parliamentary sittings.

The session will take place from 8.30 am to 2.30 pm at D’ Sun Zone, Perdana Botanical Gardens, following an earlier round held last Saturday (April 18) at the historic Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad.

Roshinee said the first session saw encouraging public participation, with 425 signatures collected against an initial target of 500.

“We were quite close to our target in the first round. We managed to collect 425 signatures and that really showed me that Malaysians do care about parliamentary accountability,” she said in a video.

For the second session this Sunday, Roshinee said she is aiming to significantly scale up public support, with a target of 1,000 signatures.

The signature drive is part of Roshinee’s broader independent initiative titled 'Dilarang Ponteng Parlimen', a citizen-driven political experiment aimed at challenging what she calls normalised absenteeism among MPs.

The project is currently in its fourth episode, where she documents the campaign and engages the public on parliamentary accountability.

Roshinee said the core concern behind the campaign is the issue of MPs failing to attend parliamentary sittings despite being paid public funds.

“I want Malaysian MPs who skip Parliament to be disciplined. It upsets me to know that MPs are paid around RM400 daily allowance to attend parliamentary sittings and still some of them don’t show up,” she said.

She also pointed out that under existing constitutional provisions, MPs can reportedly be absent for up to six months without permission before their seats are declared vacant.

“If I don’t show up on Microsoft Teams for even one day, my boss will start a search party against me. But in Parliament, MPs can be absent for months. That imbalance needs to be questioned,” she added.

Concerns over parliamentary absenteeism

Roshinee stressed that parliamentary absenteeism is not a minor issue, but one that directly affects governance and democratic outcomes.

“When an MP is absent without cause, it is a loss for us, the citizens, for reform, and for democracy,” she said.

She cited a recent example from March 2026, where a proposed constitutional reform to limit the Prime Minister’s tenure to 10 years failed to pass.

“That bill failed to get the two-thirds majority because 32 MPs were absent and 44 abstained during the vote.

"That is a very serious democratic outcome influenced by absence,” she said.

According to her, such cases highlighted a recurring problem in Parliament where absent MPs face little to no consequences.

“Parliamentary absenteeism is not new. The reality is that these truant MPs often face very little accountability,” she added.