KUALA LUMPUR – A government lawmaker has taken PAS deputy president Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man to task after the latter’s ostensible attempt to defend the absence of key Perikatan Nasional (PN) leaders in Parliament.
DAP’s Taiping MP Wong Kah Woh highlighted the difference between opposition leaders being unable to ask questions and choosing to not present their queries to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim during the Prime Minister Question Time (PMQT) in the Dewan Rakyat.
“When PN complains that their top trio (of leaders) have no chance to ask questions, the first question they should answer is: have they (the trio) ever submitted any questions for PMQT?
“There will be no question to be chosen for answer if there is no question submitted. Simple logic,” Wong, who is also Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee former chairman, said in a Facebook post today.
He added that the standard parliamentary process, which stipulates that MPs who did not submit questions still have the opportunity to raise their concerns through supplementary questions, if allowed by the Dewan Rakyat speaker.
“For the first question under the PMQT during the final day of the last sitting, the speaker has even allowed a fourth supplementary question to be asked relating to (Anwar’s) China visit.
“It is also a parliamentary convention that if the opposition leader is to stand up and request to speak, or in this case (present) a supplementary question, he will be given the first priority.
“However, when you are not there in the chamber, you definitely have no chance to ask supplementary questions, no matter how senior you are.”
Yesterday, Tuan Ibrahim, who is also Kubang Kerian MP, said that the absenteeism of PN’s top three leaders in Parliament is moot as “not everyone can ask questions to the prime minister”.
He also trained his guns at government lawmakers, claiming their attendance is abysmal whenever the prime minister is not present in the Dewan Rakyat.
The coalition bigwigs, namely opposition leader Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin, PN chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and PAS president Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang, had failed to participate in any of the seven PMQTs in the lower house throughout the previous sitting, which lasted eight weeks.
On Tuesday, Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil slammed PN’s leaders for their repeated absence during PMQT, saying it was a missed opportunity for the opposition to confront the prime minister through supplementary questions.
Political observers have since opined that the said leaders’ absence could be perceived as a sign of disrespect towards their voters’ mandate.
However, they also noted that this will do little to sway public support due to their staunch and highly partisan supporters. – The Vibes, April 7, 2023
