It has been just over two weeks since the newly-installed King, Sultan Ibrahim, had warned the MPs in the parliament not to “play politics” and to always respect the administration of the unity government that was formed after the 15th General Election in Dec 2022.
He had also issued a stern reminder that the Dewan Rakyat was the place where laws were enacted and that the MPs were the legislators, before adding that, as such, they must set a good example and abide by the rules throughout the sessions.
Yet, just like the proverbial “when the cat's away, the mice start to play”, as usual, that has been the story of the Malaysian parliament so far - with childish exchanges and unsubstantiated accusations (in the name of legal immunity) being hurled around almost daily!
In fact, according to a report in the Malay Mail, during a recent session, opposition MP Awang Hashim from PAS had stood up and called for an abrupt halt to tourism minister Tiong King Sing’s wrap-up speech; he had complained of the minister’s “poor command” of the Malay language in delivering key points relating to his ministry.
Citing Standing Order 38(3), Awang - who had once comically complained to the Speaker that his own party colleague had allegedly threatened him - went on to ask the minister to stop the speech alleging that he and others in the hall could not understand what was being read.
In fact, the controversial Pendang MP then went on to mock Tiong saying that possibly he himself did not understand what he was reading!
Suspecting that the PAS MP may be “deliberately” trying to disrupt proceedings by having a dig at the tourism minister for his Sarawakian slang, two other MPs from the DAP then interjected to inform the Speaker that the wrong standing order had been cited. This then sparked another round of ruckus, with the speaker himself also getting involved after losing his cool!
In fact, earlier another opposition MP, Ermieyati Samsudin from Bersatu had also stood up to interject Tiong several times - interrupting proceedings - claiming that she was unable to understand what was being read out by the minister from east Malaysia.
Yet, strangely, everyone else present in the hall, including the Speaker himself, appeared to perfectly understand the tourism minister's speech except for the duo from the opposition Perikatan Nasional.
Among others, perhaps, this incident underlines the importance of the Speaker making the right call and acting expeditiously to snuff out any unwarranted objection raised by some MPs who may be picking on petty issues to interrupt the session and waste precious time.
In fact, it might even have highlighted the improper behaviour of certain MPs who may be trying to shame another MP by using the parliament as a platform for “revenge politics”, although the King had earlier warned them “not to play politics” inside the august house.
Furthermore, it also underscores the need for a high level of tolerance among the elected MPs due to the diverse racial backgrounds of the people in this country with places like Kelantan, Kedah, Negeri Sembilan, Sabah and Sarawak all having their own distinct accent.
Incidentally, the tenacious tourism minister had recently succeeded in getting the traditional Chinese dish “bak kut teh”, which originated from Klang, to be listed as a national heritage dish.
This had attracted fierce criticism from certain “pro-nationalist” quarters who promptly turned it into a racial and religious issue, leaving some to speculate if the recent incident in the parliament might have some connection to the bak kut teh controversy.
But, the startling thing was that in spite of the commotion raging all around and the personal insults hurled at him, the calmest person in the hall was the tourism minister himself who kept a dignified silence before coolly brushing off the opposition MP from PAS, saying that maybe the latter was trying to perli (insult) him by picking on his command of the national language.
Remarkably too, instead of getting emotionally worked up, he went on to assert calmly that he was not interested in hitting back (which could make matters worse) but will instead let the people be the judge before coolly carrying on with his speech - regardless of whether the two opposition MPs understood him or not!
In closing, perhaps, it’s true after all, that sometimes silence is true wisdom’s best response.
(You can view the entire incident here)
JK Joseph is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
