Chaos in Dewan Rakyat

ARCHIVES 2010

By MT Webmaster On Dec 17, 2010

In addition, MPs votes fully based on the stands of their political parties. If the BN supports a motion, the Pakatan Rakyat will definitely oppose it and vice versa. How the MPs going to defend the people’s right if they do not vote based on their conscience?

By LIM SUE GOAN, Sin Chew
Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE

After the 2008 general election, the Dewan Rakyat has always been noisy and unexpected, it turned worse in the last two days of the parliamentary session in 2010. The motion to suspend four Members of Parliament (MPs) from the house of representatives for six months was only the fuse. The main reason behind it was because the next general election would be coming soon and therefore, the ruling and alternative coalitions started to attack each other again.

The Pakatan Rakyat will sure fight back with the issue to reverse its disadvantage of losing in the previous by-election. The people also tend to sympathise with the weak ones. However, being excessively sensational and exaggeration might bring counter-effects. Over the past two years and nine months, the people have learned too many half-truths and political farce. They are really a little bored. The BN and the Pakatan Rakyat just do not know how to stop and this might benefit the third force as voters in resentment might take the third option.

I am not going to talk about who is right and who is wrong here, let’s just analyse how the Dewan Rakyat has wasted more than two years time because of the fight between the ruling and the alternative coalitions, how it has been unable to seriously make laws and handle national issues, and how it has lost its function in a democratic system but ended up a a battlefield. The stands of the political parties are the key and the lack of quality in MPs is also one of the factors.

When Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia made a summary over the performance of MPs last year, he praised DAP Kepong MP Dr Tan Seng Giaw. I believe that in addition to his language skills, the Speaker praised Tan mainly because he is a gentleman who does not quarrel with BN MPs. They would ignore the Speaker whenever the ruling and alternative MPs started quarrelling. Surely, to protect his heart, Pandikar, who had a heart operation in March this year, hopes that there are more MPs who are as gentle as Tan in the Dewan Rakyat, so that peace can be restored at the parliamentary hall.

At a conference held in conjunction with the Parliament’s 50th anniversary celebration last year, three video clips of parliamentary sessions were broadcast, including one when DAP Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal Singh questioned Mersing MP Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad for not raising his right hand when taking his oath and Pandikar smoothed things over by saying that “he might be suffering from hand pain”. Aother video clip showed Puchong MP Gobind Singh was ejected from the House by Deputy Speaker Datuk Ronald Kiandee for making rude remarks and the last video clip showed Bukit Gantang MP Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin started shouting “Hidup rakyat” (long live the people) and put on the “Bubar DUN” (dissolve the Perak state assembly) headband right after he was sworn in as a MP, and was suspended for two days by Pandikar. Those who attended the conference could not help but burst into laughter when they watched the video clips and saw Pandikar denounce the irregularities angrily. Some people even shouted “get out” when watching the video clips as if they were watching a farce.

The chaos in the House is indeed a farce and MPs always quarrel fiercely just because of a tiny matter. It seems like throwing money into the sea for the country to spend a huge amount of money on elections and parliamentary sessions (MPs who attend the sittings will receive daily allowance of RM200).

Does it show democracy only when the House is noisy or having a fight like Taiwan and South Korea? As for me, I hope that the Speaker would not be struck by a heart attack or it will indeed create history.