The Selangor State Assembly Oversight and Government Accountability

It is imperative to ensure that every decision made by a legislative body has thebest interest of the citizens at heart. The Selangor State Assembly (SSA) is the legislativebody that oversees the government of Selangor, Malaysia. The SSA follows theparliamentary model of government. This paper attempts to examine the effectiveness ofthe SSA oversight in ensuring the Selangor state government accountability generally, andin relation to the Talam case, specifically. The concept of accountability has two facets –answerability and enforcement. Matching internal and external oversights with the differentforms of accountability must have high enforcement or sanctions capacity for the oversightmechanisms to be effective. There are three areas of focus in the study: i) the mechanismsavailable in the SSA, ii) the effectiveness of the mechanisms used in ensuring thegovernment accountability in Selangor and iii) the challenges in ensuring governmentaccountability in Selangor and how they are resolved. The data of this research paper ismainly from interviews and secondary sources. The conceptual framework of legislativeoversight and government accountability of Pelizzo and Stapenhurst (2014) is used as thetheoretical guideline of this study. Legislative oversight, if effectively performed, can keepgovernment accountable; a greater accountability can lead to a reduction in the level ofcorruption. Reduced corruption results in improved economic development and livingstandards. This study reveals the extent of the SSA legislative oversight effectiveness inensuring the Selangor state government accountability.