KUALA LUMPUR – The first day of the Dewan Rakyat sitting today witnessed an early morning shouting match after several opposition lawmakers jumped to the defence of Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (Pagoh-PN).
The situation in the lower House appeared to become tense when Lim Guan Eng (Bagan-PH) brought up how Malaysia’s position in the Fitch Ratings had dropped when the nation was helmed by Muhyiddin as prime minister.
“Since the current administration is enjoying political stability for the first time since 2020, I would like to know: what is our main economic policy that will allow us to remedy our Fitch rating, which declined during (Muhyiddin’s) government?” Lim asked.
Lim, who is also DAP national chairman, said this as part of his additional question to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim during the question-and-answer session in Parliament.
Appearing to take offence to Lim’s statement, Jamaludin Yahya (Pasir Salak-PN) then stood up and cited Standing Order 36(5), which states that no MP shall refer to another lawmaker by name.
“Bagan (Lim) said (Muhyiddin’s) name just now. He cannot say his name like that, he should refer to him by his parliamentary constituency. I’m requesting for him to be ordered to retract his comment,” said Jamaludin.
After a brief moment of consideration, Deputy Dewan Rakyat Speaker Alice Lau then instructed Gobind Singh Deo (Damansara-PH) to proceed with his question towards Deputy Communications and Digital Minister Teo Nie Ching on government measures to promote digital businesses.
Affronted by the supposed snub to his fellow opposition member, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim (Arau-PN) and several other PN backbenchers loudly protested Lau’s dismissal of the matter, imploring the speaker to at least acknowledge the standing order raised by Jamaludin.
“A standing order has been cited, the speaker cannot just ignore it,” Shahidan said while pointing to Standing Order 36(6) on how no MP shall impute improper motives against another MP.
In response to the verbal protests from Shahidan, an exasperated Gobind then jumped into the fray to justify Lim’s statement, explaining that Lim was referring to Muhyiddin’s administration, not the Bersatu president himself.
“What Bagan (Lim) was talking about is his (Muhyiddin’s) government, not him (personally). What is the problem?
“We should be continuing with our question-and-answer session (since) we are MPs in Parliament and I would like some answers to my question. Why is this matter being dragged on?
“Even the one citing standing orders does not understand the Dewan Rakyat rules. Arau (Shahidan), relax,” Gobind said when Arau continued to speak over Teo as she attempted to read out her answer.
Datuk Awang Hashim (Pendang-PN) also took the opportunity to voice his thoughts on the matter by interrupting Teo’s speech yet again to question Lau on why no ruling had been made on the standing order referenced by Jamaludin.
Warning Awang that she would evict him from the hall if he went on speaking out of turn, Lau then said: “I already made my ruling (when) I called the deputy minister (Teo) to present her answer. If you (Awang) want to make noise, just leave.” – The Vibes, May 22, 2023
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