After a spate of unsavoury and disturbing incidents in the country's Parliament recently, the Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah's stern reminder to his state assemblymen to behave and maintain decorum during state legislative assembly sittings appears to be spot on!
According to a report in the Malay Mail he had issued the reminder after receiving the new Selangor State Assembly Speaker Lau Weng San who paid a courtesy call on the state Ruler at Istana Bukit Kayangan, Shah Alam yesterday.
During the meeting, Sultan Sharafuddin advised the speaker to continue the good work carried out by his predecessors, by being fair, firm and impartial when presiding over the assembly sitting.
Furthermore, he stressed that he wants the state assemblymen to follow existing procedures and not use improper and crude language; he also warned them against behaving in an uncivilised manner.
In the post, Sultan Sharafuddin gave due credit and expressed his appreciation to the previous speakers from the DAP since 2008, who have always managed to keep matters under control during every state assembly session.
Meanwhile, last week the Malay Mail had reported that PAS’ Pengkalan Chepa MP Datuk Ahmad Marzuk Shaary had labelled DAP as "kafir” after a shouting match erupted between him and Ipoh Timur MP Howard Lee Chuan How over the latter’s alleged Quranic verse misinterpretation.
Incidentally, the same news portal had also reported last month of another incident that plunged the Parliament into absolute chaos with a 40-minute shouting match between MPs from both sides of the political divide; this happened during PM Anwar’s winding-up speech for the 12th Malaysia Plan Mid-Term Review debate.
Apparently, the incident was sparked by a series of misunderstandings between PM Anwar and Perikatan Nasional's Putrajaya MP Radzi Jidin, with the former believing the latter had laughed at him while the latter thought the former was referring to him on misconduct.
According to the report, Anwar later explained that he had actually implied the "Putrajaya administration” of which Radzi was a member, rather than directly mentioning him as "Putrajaya MP”. Radzi then demanded Anwar to retract his allegation but apparently the situation came to a head when he accused Anwar of "sodomy!"
Following the ruckus, the PN lawmaker was ejected from the House by the Speaker, with other Opposition MPs soon joining him by staging a walk-out.
In fact, the samseng (thuggish) and condescending behaviour of some of our politicians during parliament and state assembly sessions is not something new.
Even back in 2021, the NST had reported the Johor Sultan's warning to his state reps to respect the sanctity of the State Assembly during proceedings and not misbehave!
Sultan Ibrahim had reminded the elected reps not to mar the assembly with bad behaviour; he added that it was an august house (dewan yang mulia) and not a monkey cage (dewan sangkar monyet). He further expressed his hope that the Speaker would remember his reminder and carry out his duties accordingly.
He then gave a stern warning that he will not entertain any political games by assemblymen who continue to quarrel and disrupt their duties in the state.
Sadly, with the political situation in the country seemingly on a knife's edge right now - and with emotions running high among politicians - crude name-calling using terms like "lap dog" and kafir (infidel) has apparently become a norm. What's coming next is anyone's guess.
Maybe, before every session in the Dewan Rakyat and State Assemblies, all MPs and elected reps should be required to take an oath to uphold the Rukun Negara?
Anyway, it's high time House Speakers put their foot down and promptly clamp down on any uncivilised behaviour by “uncouth” politicians - regardless of which party they belong to - before matters really get out of hand!
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