Oratorial slugfest in the House
Malay Mail (28/5/08): Some senior members of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association attended Question Time yesterday, and were, as a result, treated to a display of oratorical fisticuffs that threw the House into complete mayhem.
Nasir Zakaria (Pas-Padang Terap) got things moving with a question to Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Idris Harun (BN-Tangga Batu) about why a certain university vice-chancellor’s contract had been reduced to six months from three years.
Idris evaded the question with a long exposition on university rankings and an appeal to what he called the “Time Highway, err, no.
The Time Higher Education Supplement.” His incessant dissembling put Nasir in a frenzy, and the normally taciturn Nasir rose to interrupt.
For reasons best known to himself, Idris then chose to respond with something sounding like “okka”, which most in the House (including Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia) could not make out with any certainty.
Not so N. Gobalakrishnan (PKR-Padang Serai), who rose with M. Kulasegaran (DAPIpoh Barat) to demand an immediate retraction. Idris, however, maintained that the word was “okkarengge”, the Tamil expression for “kindly be seated”.
Gobalakrishnan maintained it was something else entirely — a gutter vulgarity, in fact — and responded with fury.
The usual harpy-screeching then erupted on both sides, prompting Pandikar Amin’s acid remark that there were three minutes left of the live telecast.
But Gobalakrishnan’s rage had reached boiling-point by then, rendering him deaf and blind to the noble efforts of Opposition frontbencher Datuk Abdul Halim Abdul Rahman (Pas-Pengkalan Chepa) to rescue the proceedings.
The impetuous blunderer would not be dissuaded from his ill-advised personal crusade to bring justice to the House. Faced with an increasing number of government backbenchers rising to meet his ranting, and inspired perhaps by a prepubescent yearning for attention, the first-term MP left his seat and walked up to Pandikar to whisper in his ear.
Tramping up with swaying arms, he failed to see his leader Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (PKR-Permatang Pauh) waving frantically at him to abandon his Perry Mason theatrics, and an outraged Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan)- for once with Parliamentary rule of order on his side - rose to demand Gobalakrishnan’s immediate suspension from the House.
“An incident such as this has never occurred here,” he declared.
“And this is not a House of ruffians. I ask that my honourable friends support me.” The entire Government bench rose immediately amidst some high-pitched hooting, and order was reimposed only when PKR Chief Whip Mohd Azmin Ali (PKRGombak) restored a measure of dignity to his party by obliging his junior to apologise.
Gobalakrishnan duly complied, admitting to being unaware of the rules of the House. Later in the lobby, however, he maintained that he saw nothing reprehensible about his conduct, and that Pandikar Amin and he enjoyed the relationship of a “father and son”.
With the end of that episode, members generally lost whatever fire they had. Bung Mokhtar, in an uncharacteristic demonstration of environmentalist speechifying, rose during the debate on the Supplementary Supply Bill to champion the cause of recycling.
Things returned to “normal” briefly late in the day when Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (BN-Pasir Salak) launched a surprise attack on de facto Law Minister Senator Datuk Mohd Zaid Ibrahim, who named him last Saturday as among the government MPs who openly disagreed with the Prime Minister.
Tajuddin said he had been a Barisan supporter for over three decades, and accused Zaid in turn of going on a holiday abroad during the recent general elections.
He then spoilt the effect he was having by saying: “I would have told him this in the morning when he was here, but then he would have replied, wouldn’t he? Ha-ha.” (U-En Ng)
Nasir Zakaria (Pas-Padang Terap) got things moving with a question to Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Idris Harun (BN-Tangga Batu) about why a certain university vice-chancellor’s contract had been reduced to six months from three years.
Idris evaded the question with a long exposition on university rankings and an appeal to what he called the “Time Highway, err, no.
The Time Higher Education Supplement.” His incessant dissembling put Nasir in a frenzy, and the normally taciturn Nasir rose to interrupt.
For reasons best known to himself, Idris then chose to respond with something sounding like “okka”, which most in the House (including Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia) could not make out with any certainty.
Not so N. Gobalakrishnan (PKR-Padang Serai), who rose with M. Kulasegaran (DAPIpoh Barat) to demand an immediate retraction. Idris, however, maintained that the word was “okkarengge”, the Tamil expression for “kindly be seated”.
Gobalakrishnan maintained it was something else entirely — a gutter vulgarity, in fact — and responded with fury.
The usual harpy-screeching then erupted on both sides, prompting Pandikar Amin’s acid remark that there were three minutes left of the live telecast.
But Gobalakrishnan’s rage had reached boiling-point by then, rendering him deaf and blind to the noble efforts of Opposition frontbencher Datuk Abdul Halim Abdul Rahman (Pas-Pengkalan Chepa) to rescue the proceedings.
The impetuous blunderer would not be dissuaded from his ill-advised personal crusade to bring justice to the House. Faced with an increasing number of government backbenchers rising to meet his ranting, and inspired perhaps by a prepubescent yearning for attention, the first-term MP left his seat and walked up to Pandikar to whisper in his ear.
Tramping up with swaying arms, he failed to see his leader Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (PKR-Permatang Pauh) waving frantically at him to abandon his Perry Mason theatrics, and an outraged Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan)- for once with Parliamentary rule of order on his side - rose to demand Gobalakrishnan’s immediate suspension from the House.
“An incident such as this has never occurred here,” he declared.
“And this is not a House of ruffians. I ask that my honourable friends support me.” The entire Government bench rose immediately amidst some high-pitched hooting, and order was reimposed only when PKR Chief Whip Mohd Azmin Ali (PKRGombak) restored a measure of dignity to his party by obliging his junior to apologise.
Gobalakrishnan duly complied, admitting to being unaware of the rules of the House. Later in the lobby, however, he maintained that he saw nothing reprehensible about his conduct, and that Pandikar Amin and he enjoyed the relationship of a “father and son”.
With the end of that episode, members generally lost whatever fire they had. Bung Mokhtar, in an uncharacteristic demonstration of environmentalist speechifying, rose during the debate on the Supplementary Supply Bill to champion the cause of recycling.
Things returned to “normal” briefly late in the day when Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (BN-Pasir Salak) launched a surprise attack on de facto Law Minister Senator Datuk Mohd Zaid Ibrahim, who named him last Saturday as among the government MPs who openly disagreed with the Prime Minister.
Tajuddin said he had been a Barisan supporter for over three decades, and accused Zaid in turn of going on a holiday abroad during the recent general elections.
He then spoilt the effect he was having by saying: “I would have told him this in the morning when he was here, but then he would have replied, wouldn’t he? Ha-ha.” (U-En Ng)
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