Filibuster – Talk till you drop!

Since I made the posting “Wasted days and wasted nights?”, venting my frustration at some absent PR members of parliament for failing to defeat the BN government’s National Budget 2010, I have received a few calls and comments from people I know if I really understood parliamentary procedures and why I was so harsh with MPs from PR?

By romerz

Amongst the term that was put to me was the term “filibuster”. To be honest, I only vaguely understood the meaning of filibuster from watching CNN. I knew it meant to delay voting on a bill in parliament or congress, but how I did not know. After checking on the internet and consulting with my MP YB Liew Chin Tong of Bukit Bendera, I now have a better understanding of filibustering in the Malaysian context.

A good friend pointed out to me that it was wrong for me to assume that even had all the absentees from PR attended the sitting, the National Budget 2010 could have been defeated because of filibustering, which was exactly what happened as confirmed by YB Liew Chin Tong.

Definition of “filibuster” from Wikipedia.

Basically speaking, with a biased speaker and the Malaysian practice of voting by party whip, no BN sponsored bill can be defeated in parliament. Even if BN does not have the numbers, they can delay the vote until they can get enough members from their side to the house. And with their superior numbers, they will eventually win the day.

Read more at: Filibuster – Talk till you drop!