Rencana-Rencana/ ArticlesBibliographic Sources to Malaysian Parliamentary Papers

Molly Chuah*

Abstrak: SaW huraian mengenai beberapa jenis kertas Par/iamen Malaysia diutarakan.~eberapa jen~s ~ndeks kepada Han~rd dijelas~an. Kelemahan indeks-indeks tersebut sepertitidak kemsskin', kekerapan penerbitan yang tidak tetap, ketiadaan indeks berkumulatif dankekurangan pendekatan kepada indeks tersebut diberikan perhatian. Buat masa ini tiadapenyusunan indeks yang len~k~p dijalanka~ untuk lain-lain jenis kertas Parliamen. Cadangan-cadangan untuk memperbelki keadaan dikemuksksn seperti menyusun indeks mengikutsidang untuk meliputi semua kertas Parliamen, menyusun indeks sementara kepada Hansarddan membina satu sistem berautomasi yang berkeupayaan memberikan teks penuh dankemudahan CD-ROM.

Abstract: A description of the various types of Malaysian Parliamentary papers is first given. Thevarious indexes to the Hansard are then described. Shortcomings of these indexes such as lackof currency, infrequency of issue, lack of cumulations and inadequate access points are noted.There is currently no comprehensive index compiled for other Parliamentary papers. Recom-mendations for improvement are the compilation of a sessional index to cover all papers,compilation of interim indexforthe Hansard and an automated system with full-text and CD-ROMfacilities.

TYPES OF PARlIAMENTARY PAPERS

As Parliament is the forum where nationalissues are discussed and legislation made, paperspresented and the records of its proceedings areinvaluable primary sources of information to research-ers. Using Ford's classification of British Parliamen-tary paper, Malaysian parliamentary papers cansimUarly be grouped as follows 1 :

I. Papers relating to the agenda, proceedingsand debates of the House.

(a) Aturan Urusan Mesyuarat or the Order Paper.Being the agenda for each sitting, its contentsreflect the order of the business as set out in theStanding Orders.

(b) Undi-Undi dan Perjalanan Mesyuarat or theVotes and Proceedings. These are the minutesof the previous day which outline records ofbusiness transacted. Like the British Votes andProceedings, 'it is a record of what was done ...as opposed as to what was spoken by indivi-dual members which is recounted in the papersof the Hansard'. 2

(c) Penyata Rasmi Parlimen or Official Report ofParliamentary Debates (Hansard). This officialreport is a verbatim record of the proceedingsof the Houses and the Committees of thewhole House including all speeches made,questions and answers thereto, motions andbills considered by the Houses. Earlier de-bates were reported in Bahasa Malaysia orEnglish according to the language in which thespeeches were delivered. However, becauseof the increasing use of the Malay languagewhich has been designated as the officiallanguage of the Houses", the text of presentday Hansard is predominantly in BahasaMalaysia. The text of the Debates is usuallyprinted in two columns which are numbered ina continuous sequence for each session.

II. Papers giving Parliament information andother materials relating to policy andadministration

Arising out of the deliberations or needed for thework of the House, these are papers submitted toboth Houses for the information of members.' Theyare of the following:

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(a) Rang Undang-undang or Bills. Four type ofbills may be introduced: public or governmentbills; private member bills; private bills and.hybrid bills. Each bill is numbered chro-nologically according to the year it is intro-duced as follows: 'DR ...of 19.. or ON... of 19..',depending on whether it is introduced in theDewan Rakyat (House of Representatives) orthe Dewan Negara (Senate). .

(b) House Papers. These are usually reports of thevarious committees of the Houses such as theCommittee of Selection, Standing OrdersCommittee; Committee of Privileges, PublicAccounts Committee and Special Select Com-mittees. Reports of these Committees, usuallyhave to be submitted before the 'end of thesession in which they are appointed. Usuallyaccompanied by minutes of proceedings to-gether with evidence given, these reports arepresented to the House either by the C~airmanor by a member nominated by the Chairman.

(c) Kertas Statut or Statute Paper. Tabled pursuantto some statutory requirements, they includestatutory instruments, annual reports andaccounts of statutory bodies, and loan agree-ments. Each paper tabled bears a paper numberin the following format: 'ST ... of 19..'and isnormally tabled for information ~nly. ~he~epapers are usually not subject to discusslon Inthe Houses but the Minister may move that thepapers be confirmed.

(d) Kertas Perintah or Command Paper. Thoughtheoretically tabled by command of the King,they are in practice presented by the Ministerin charge. Usually they are papers which areconsidered to be of interest to Parliament butthe presentation of which is not required bystatute. They include the Auditor-General'sreports; estimates of expenditure, revenue anddevelopment; Treasury reports like the annualEconomic Reports; annual reports of servicecommissions; treaties and agreements;Commissions of Enquiry reports; Royal Com-mission reports and White Papers. Tabled bya Minister to either or both Houses, they areusually numbered as 'Cmd .. of 19..', with a newsequence of numbers every year.

EXISTING BIBUOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

To facilitate access to the contents of thesepapers, indexes and guides are necessary. Thecurrently available tools and their adequacy will nowbe examined.

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(a) Index to Parliamentary Debates = Fahrasatkepada Perbahathan Parlimen

These indexes have varied in format and qua-lity over the years. The first index issued covers theDebates for the First Session of the First Parlia-ment,l. e. the 1959-60 session, 11 September 1959to 24 February 1960. The items indexed are asfollows: Announcement by the Speaker or Presi-dent (A); adjournment speech (A/S); Committeestage of Bills (C); Committee of the Whole House(CjH); Committee of Supply (CjS); motions (M);oral answers to questions (OjA); First reading ofBills (1R); Second reading of Bills (2R); Third read-ing of Bills (3R); statement by minister (S); specialappendix to the King's speech (SjA); and writtenanswers to questions (WjA). Title headings as-signed to reflect the subject matter are listed inalphabetical order. For each entry, abbreviation toshow the type of item and the column number aregiven. Subjects pertaining tothevarious Ministriesare also indexed under the name of the Ministryconcerned in an inverted form, e. g. 'JUSTICE -MINISTRY OF', to collocate all subject matter per-taining to that Ministry. Some of these subjects arerepeated under their title headings. In the case ofBills, they are indexed under the Ministry con-cerned and the title of the Bill. For example, theAdvocates and Solicitors (Amendment) Bill is to befound under the 'JUSTICE - MINISTRY OF' as wellas under its title.

The index to the Debates of the Second Parlia-ment 18 May 1965 to 13 February 1969, saw a mixof English and Bahasa Malaysia headings usedaccording to the medium of the speech indexed.This is a shortcoming because the same subjectcould be debated in either language and there is nocollocation of entries on the same subject matter.For example, in the Fifth sessional index (6June 1968to 13February 1969) both these terms bearing similarmeaning, 'Burch' (p.8) and 'Labour' (p.42) are em-ployed and the items listed under each of theseheadings are not cross-referenced or repeated.

The Third Parliamentary Debates index ( 20February 1971 to 26 July 1974) encompasses a fewchanges. All subject headings and abbreviationsused to denote type of items are in Bahasa Malaysia.There is also an attempt to use headings to reflectsubject matter rather than title headings as In earlierindexes. Collocation of subjects Indexed Is providedto some extent by the use of cross-references. Forexample, In the First Sessional Index (20 February1971 - 11 February 1972), under 'Angkatan Tentsra'one is referred to Tentera'.

There is also a new feature of indexing under thenames of members who spoke with subdivisionsaccording to the subject matter touched upon.These name entries are interfiled with the subjectentries In an alphabetical sequence. With effectfrom the second session (10 May 1972 to 31 January1973), the index is issued in two sections, I.e. thesubject index and the name index. Entries listedunder motions, ministerial statements, announce-ments by the Speaker I President and adjoummentspeeches are also listed under the appropriatesubject headings. However, entries listed underBills (Rang Undang-Undang) are not enteredagain under the appropriate subjects or title of theBills. The practice of having entries under Ministrieswas discontinued.

The index to the Debates of the Fourth Parlia-ment (4 November 1974 to 7 April 1978) follows thesame format as that for the Third Parliament. How-ever in the index for the 1977 -78 session writtenansv:,ers to questions are no longer indexed. Thepractice of indexing members' co~tributi~n wasdiscontinued in the index for the Fifth Parliamentfor reason of economy. This is a retrogressive stepas it detracts from the usefulness of the index as abibliographic tool. This absence of the name indexis also evident in the last index issued to date, thatfor the Fourth Session of the Sixth Parliament (11March 1986 to 8 April 1989).

(b) Index to Oral and Written Answers ~oQuestions = Fahrasal Kepada Jawapan-JawapanMLJlA dan J~awapan Bertulis kepadaPenanyaan-pertarfy'8BfJ

In this index, headings assigned by Han~rdreporters to reflect the subject matt~r of questionsare listed in an alphabetical order In a colum.n~rformat. Each entry carries details of whether It ISwritten answers0f'//A) ororal answers (O/A), dateit is reported, volume number of the. Ha~sard, theParliament during which the question IS po~ed,and the column number of the Hansard. He~dlngs

. M I ysia or English ac-assigned are In Bahasa a a .cording to the language of the text. A shortcomingof this Index is that it does not inde~ the name ofthe member who poses the questions an~ theMinister who replies. Moreover, the index IS notproduced on a regular basis and to d~te only t:-"ohave been produced, the first covering the FirstParliament from 11 September 1959 to 11 J?nuary1964 and the second for the Second Parliamentfrom 18 May 1964 till 13 February 1969.

Summary

The two indexes described above are usefulbibliographic tools. A very significant problemhowever is the lack of currency. The sessionalindex for the debates of the First Parliament (1959-64) was only published in 1974 and to date thelatest issued (in 1989) is that for the Sixth Parlia-ment (14 June 1982 - 8 April 1986) although cur-rently the country is into the Eighth Parliament. Thedelay in issuing the index could be linked to delaysin getting the official and edited version of theDebates printed, as details of column numbers willnot be available for inclusion in the relevant index.

The second shortcoming is its lack of fre-quency. The Indexes are sessional compilationswithout cumulations. Hence the inconvenience ofhaving to look through several sequences.

The quality of its subject indexing is questiona-ble.ln the earlier indexes a hodge-podge of BahasaMalaysia and English terms are used withoutcross-references to collocate subjects. The discon-tinuance of indexing under names of contributingmembers also adversely affects the usefulness ofthe index.

OTHER BIBLIOGRAPHIC GUIDES

As for the other types of Parliamentary papers,I.e. BUls, Reports of the House Committee, Com-mand Papers and Statute Papers, there is no com-prehensive index like the British House of CommonsSessional Index which covers all these papers. Theonly comprehensive listing of papers presented toParliament is the Risalat-Risalat Yang Berikut Te/ahdiBentang Sebagai Kertas Statut; Kertas Perintah;Kertas Dewan Rakyat / Kertas Dewan Rakyat keDalam Persidangan Dewan Rakyat/Dewan Negara.This listing appears in the Federal Government Ga-zette at the end of each meeting, appearing five to sixmonths after their presentation without any cumula-tions. Morever, the Risalat-risalat is a cumbersomelist to use because papers are arranged by the dateof presentation to the Houses. The list provides onlydetails of paper number, title and date of presenta-tion, without any subject access.

Bibliographies such as the Malaysian NationalBibliography, catalogues and accession lists oflibraries may be used to track down parliamentarypapers. However, these have limitations as biblio-graphic sources for such papers. These sources are

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not specifically for parliamentary papers and one hasto look through a long sequence fo pick out therelevant papers. Moreover, the comprehensivenessof their coverage is dependent on how successful thelibraries are in acquiring these papers.

RECOMMENDATIONS

There is a dearth of bibliographic sources to aidthe researcher to search for Parliamentary papers.The few available are not without deficiencies. Im-provements in bibliographic sources are suggestedalong the following lines.

Compilation of an index to cover all papers

There is a need for a comprehensive index toBills House papers, Command papers and Statutepap~rs. The arrangement of the sessional indexshould conform to the categorisation of the .pap~rsand the way they are numbered. In Malays~, ~llIsare given a number preceded by the abbreViations'DR' for Dewan Rakyat or 'ON' for Dewan Neg?ra,with reference to the year rather than the session.House papers are numbered in a simila~ manner.Command and Statute papers are also gIVen nU,m-bers with reference to the year, In the MalaystanParliament Ubrary, each of these types of pa~ersis arranged and bound in seperate numericalsequences, The suggested index will have to con-form to this pattern of numerical arrangement andone may take as an 'example, that of the House ofCommons Sessional index in its post 1979/80 for-mat. This Sessional index first lists the volumearrangement for the three categories of papers :Bills House of Commons papers and Commandpapers. Thereafter is the index proper which is analphabetical arrangement of titles of bills and sub-ject headings taken ,from the ,POLIS the~urus,Under each heading items are listed according tothe type of materials. For each entry, details oftitle, paper number and date on which the paper isformally laid before the House are given. Crossreferences are given to faciliate reference to speci-fic items particularly to specific title of Bills. Appendedis a list of public Bills giving the title of a Bill, theBill number, name of the Member sponsoring it andthe abbreviation for the type of Bill. Following thisare the dates of the various stages of the BUI Inboth· Houses. The sessional Index for Malaysianparliamentary papers may well follow thQ formatdescribed but with the addition of a chairman Indexand an appendix listing Command and Statute pa-pers In numerical order.

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Frequent and prompt publication of guides

The delay of five to ten years in the issue ofthe index to the Hansard has been attributed to thedelay in the publication of the official version. Thisfactor should not be a stumbling block to the compi-lation of an interim index at the end of each meetingwith a cumulated sessional index , There may bechanges between the text of the unedited dailyversion and that of the edited version but the cumu-lated sessional index can be easUy revised as isdone in the House of Commons' Hansard by theaddition of a second column number reference.

As for the index to the other House papers, asessional issue may suffice. For current search,before the appearance of the sessional index it maybe necessary to have a checklist of papers presentedat the end of each meeting. Alternatively a weeklysupplement like the House of Commons WeeklyInformation Bulletin may be produced to provideinformation on the transactions of the House everyweek as well as listing the agenda of forthcomingbusiness.

Cumulation of current issues at regularintervals

To facilitate retrospective searches, sessionalindexes to the Hansards should be consolidated forthe full Parliament. Similarly a consolidation of ses-sional indexes to the other House papers will reducethe inconvenience of looking through several issues.

Computer-based systems

With the growth in the volume and complexity ofParliamentary papers and the need for quick retrie-val of information, it may mean that the conventionalsources described so far wUI have to be supportedby a computer-based system. The installation ofsuch an automated Information retrieval systemswUIbe faciliated by the recording of proceedings oncomputer tape. Such an automated system hasbeen successfully employed at the House ofCommons Ubrarywhich has installed an online sys-tem POUS (Parliamentary Online Information Sys-tem) since 1980. The POLIS database consists ofindexes to Parliamentary questions, Ministerialstatements, House papers, Bllls, Command papers,debates and non-parliamentary publications ac-quired by the Ubrary. The advantages such anautomated system provides are obvious. Searchtechniques employing Boolean operators retrievemore efficiently than printed Indexes, making aval-

lable the most current information. Moreover, by-products such as the printed Hansard and sessionalindexes can be generated from the system. TheMalaysian Parliament may reap benefits from theinstallation of an automated system for its proceed-ings and papers. With better software and hardwarefacUities now available, a database managementsystem for its papers and a full text system for itsproceedings linked to the computerised typesettingproduction of the Hansards with subsequent storageIn compact disc medium is an achievable goal. 5Provision of proceedings In CD-ROM medium withfull text, multiple Indexing and keyword searchingfacUlties will fulfill the dual needs for effective searchand document delivery.8

NOTES

1 Percy Ford and G. Ford. A Guide to ParliamentaryPapers; What They Are, How to Fin.d The,:" H~wto Use Them. 3rd ed. Shannon : Insh Universitypress, 1971, p.2.

2 EricTaylor. TheHouseofCommon~Work.8thed.Harmondsworth, Middlesex; PengUin, 1971, p.123.

3 Malaysia. Dewan Rakyat. Standing Orders of theDewan Rakyat. 9th ed. Kuala Lumpur : JabatanPercetakan Negara, 1986, S.0.8. However, ~heSpeaker or President may permit the use of Englishduring Debates.

• Ford, p.5.5 For example, Meridian Data Inc, has introduced

Personal Publisher, a software package tha~ c?n~verts data and images to the CD-ROM publishingstandard ISO 9660, thus enabling one with a 386or 486 PC to format text or image and transfer theformatted information to CD-ROM. Access, Sep-tember 1992, p.2.

8 The British Hansard is now available on CD-ROM.Published by Chadwyck-Healey and HMSO, thedatabase has full-text coverage, multiple indexingand keyword search facilities. Access is availableby date, MP, debate, title, subject or 'chronologi-cally, with a table of contents to show the headingsfor each day's activities'. One complete session iscontained in one disc and cumulations are issuedthree times a year. LA record; V.94(12} December1992, p.773.

REFERENCES

1. Ahmad bin Abdullah. TheMalaysian Parliament(Practice and Procedure). Kuala Lumpur: DewanBahasa dan Pustaka, 1969.

2. Ford, Percy and G. Ford. A Guide to Parlia-mentary Papers: What They Are, How to FindThem, How to Use Them. 3rd ed. Shannon: IrishUniversity Press, 1971.

3. Malaysia. Dewan Rakyat. Fahrasat KepadaPerbahathan Parlimen Dewan Rakyat = Index toParliamentary Debates Dewan Rakyat (Houseof Representatives); Jifid 1- , Penggal 1959-.Kuala Lumpur: Jabatan Chetak Kerajaan, 1974-

4. Malaysia. Dewan Rakyat. Standing Order of theDewan Rakyat. 9th ed. Kuala Lumpur: JabatanPercetakan Negara, 1986.

5. Malaysia. Dewan Negara. Fahrasat KepadaPerbahathan Parlimen Dewan Negara = Indexto Parliamentary Debates Dewan Negara(Senate); Jilid 1-, PenggaI1959-. Kuala Lumpur:Jabatan Cetak Kerajaan, 1974-

6. Taylor, Eric. The House of Commons at Work.8th ed. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin,1971.

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