Fury, suspension and a walkout
Malay Mail (1/7/08): Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia, who has long been threatening to erupt in fury at Members’ indiscipline, finally invoked Rule 46 of Parliamentary Standing Orders yesterday to suspend Gobind Singh Deo (DAPPuchong) from the House for two days.
The first-term backbencher had taken a swipe at the government’s handling of the latest Anwar Ibrahim affair, and did so during a completely unrelated supplementary question on abandoned residential housing projects.
“This is a matter of security,” Gobind began, but got no further than “just as Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim” before general mayhem broke out on the government benches.
Gobind was allowed to continue but insisted on the rather pompous Malaysian habit of preceding every question with a century-long speech masquerading as a preamble.
Pandikar Amin swiftly lost patience, amidst much wailing and gnashing of government teeth, and made the Sergeant-at-Arms escort Gobind from the House, A deceptive calm then descended as Members, chastened by the experience, sought politely to dispose of Question Time as quickly as possible.
Mahfuz Omar (Pas - Pokok Sena) managed to ask a tricky question about Petronas’s expenditure on the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department S. K.
Devamany (BN-Cameron Highlands) tried his best to wriggle his way to safety.
“The MPO represents a part of Petronas’s corporate social responsibility to provide recreational activities and facilities to meet a part of society’s many demands today,” he told an incredulous opposition.
“And as a country of diverse peoples, including expatriates, these facilities offer a choice to those who enjoy the live performances of a world-standard symphony orchestra.” The opposition was rumbling, and Devamany wisely went on to state the good the MPO had managed to do in the years since its foundation: It had assisted 1,000 local musicians and 110 youths (as part of the Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra), and had encouraged 30 new orchestral compositions.
Humbug, thought Mohd Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak): “In Venezuela, where they have a similar programme of using oil money for music, they have hundreds of community orchestras involving thousands of Venezuelan youths.
“How then does the MPO compare?” he demanded, but Devamany was saved by the bell. Pandikar Amin directed him not to answer as time had run out, and Azmin had allegedly strayed from the original question anyway.
The deceptive calm then vanished like morning mist.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who had appeared in his seat some minutes earlier, was given the floor to make a ministerial statement seeking to “clarify” a point in the Prime Minister’s Mid-Term Review of the Ninth Malaysia Plan (delivered last Thursday).
Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) rose on a point of order before Najib managed to utter his first line, and demanded to know the grounds on which Najib now held the floor.
A half-hour long argument then ensued, during which Lim and opposition leaders maintained that such a move would compromise parliamentary standards beyond redemption, and to which Pandikar Amin retorted that the decision was his, and that nothing could be done about it It should be noted, however, that at no time did the Speaker attempt to eject Lim for being cantankerous. That would have been disastrous, and Pandikar Amin managed to remain relatively calm.
At one point Najib, mistakenly thinking the coast to be clear, rose to continue — only to have to sit down again under a barrage of points of order now issuing from several opposition Members.
Government backbenchers were restive and tried some tentative booing, but something was brewing on the opposition frontbench: Azmin kept nodding assent at his colleagues. Notes were passed. Pas frontbenchers were getting excited (a rare thing), and Karpal Singh (DAP-Bukit Gelugor), the father of Gobind, was assaulting the chair with quotations from the House of Commons rulebook that appeared insuperable.
Again Pandikar Amin relied on his interpretive powers under Rule 99 of the Standing Orders, and finally the opposition rose as one and walked out of the House.
This had the unfortunate effect of leaving the floor open, after Najib’s statement, to Ibrahim Ali (Ind- Pasir Mas) who thanked the absent opposition for the sterling opportunity to present an hour-long harangue about everything ranging from higher education to the price of potatoes.
The rest of the day proceeded quite normally.
The first-term backbencher had taken a swipe at the government’s handling of the latest Anwar Ibrahim affair, and did so during a completely unrelated supplementary question on abandoned residential housing projects.
“This is a matter of security,” Gobind began, but got no further than “just as Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim” before general mayhem broke out on the government benches.
Gobind was allowed to continue but insisted on the rather pompous Malaysian habit of preceding every question with a century-long speech masquerading as a preamble.
Pandikar Amin swiftly lost patience, amidst much wailing and gnashing of government teeth, and made the Sergeant-at-Arms escort Gobind from the House, A deceptive calm then descended as Members, chastened by the experience, sought politely to dispose of Question Time as quickly as possible.
Mahfuz Omar (Pas - Pokok Sena) managed to ask a tricky question about Petronas’s expenditure on the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO) and Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department S. K.
Devamany (BN-Cameron Highlands) tried his best to wriggle his way to safety.
“The MPO represents a part of Petronas’s corporate social responsibility to provide recreational activities and facilities to meet a part of society’s many demands today,” he told an incredulous opposition.
“And as a country of diverse peoples, including expatriates, these facilities offer a choice to those who enjoy the live performances of a world-standard symphony orchestra.” The opposition was rumbling, and Devamany wisely went on to state the good the MPO had managed to do in the years since its foundation: It had assisted 1,000 local musicians and 110 youths (as part of the Malaysian Philharmonic Youth Orchestra), and had encouraged 30 new orchestral compositions.
Humbug, thought Mohd Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak): “In Venezuela, where they have a similar programme of using oil money for music, they have hundreds of community orchestras involving thousands of Venezuelan youths.
“How then does the MPO compare?” he demanded, but Devamany was saved by the bell. Pandikar Amin directed him not to answer as time had run out, and Azmin had allegedly strayed from the original question anyway.
The deceptive calm then vanished like morning mist.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who had appeared in his seat some minutes earlier, was given the floor to make a ministerial statement seeking to “clarify” a point in the Prime Minister’s Mid-Term Review of the Ninth Malaysia Plan (delivered last Thursday).
Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) rose on a point of order before Najib managed to utter his first line, and demanded to know the grounds on which Najib now held the floor.
A half-hour long argument then ensued, during which Lim and opposition leaders maintained that such a move would compromise parliamentary standards beyond redemption, and to which Pandikar Amin retorted that the decision was his, and that nothing could be done about it It should be noted, however, that at no time did the Speaker attempt to eject Lim for being cantankerous. That would have been disastrous, and Pandikar Amin managed to remain relatively calm.
At one point Najib, mistakenly thinking the coast to be clear, rose to continue — only to have to sit down again under a barrage of points of order now issuing from several opposition Members.
Government backbenchers were restive and tried some tentative booing, but something was brewing on the opposition frontbench: Azmin kept nodding assent at his colleagues. Notes were passed. Pas frontbenchers were getting excited (a rare thing), and Karpal Singh (DAP-Bukit Gelugor), the father of Gobind, was assaulting the chair with quotations from the House of Commons rulebook that appeared insuperable.
Again Pandikar Amin relied on his interpretive powers under Rule 99 of the Standing Orders, and finally the opposition rose as one and walked out of the House.
This had the unfortunate effect of leaving the floor open, after Najib’s statement, to Ibrahim Ali (Ind- Pasir Mas) who thanked the absent opposition for the sterling opportunity to present an hour-long harangue about everything ranging from higher education to the price of potatoes.
The rest of the day proceeded quite normally.
0 comments:
Post a Comment