Half-baked to slow-witted – this is Parliament
Are we wrong to expect better of our representatives?
Scott Ng, Free Malaysia Today
On one side, the learned opposition leader. On the other, a Barisan MP with little to his reputation except his 2013 ascendancy to the hallowed halls of Parliament. On paper, they should be polar opposites. In fact, we expect them to be as different from each other as night from day. Sadly, this is not the case, as seen in Monday’s Parliament session.
Anwar Ibrahim is hailed as the worthiest candidate today for the prime ministership, but last Monday we saw him indulge in some of the worst excesses a politician is capable of when he tried to explain the controversial Kajang Move. He gave a filibuster on history that impressed no one, serving only to exasperate those in attendance and those of us who thought he might reveal something of substance.
Was anybody paying attention to the preamble that, at the end of the day, amounted to a history lesson insinuating that the Sultan of Selangor’s orders were superfluous to PKR’s goal of anointing Wan Azizah as the Menteri Besar of Selangor?
Even worse was his skirting of Noh Omar’s oddly valid question of why Pakatan didn’t simply submit more than one name as requested by the Sultan.
Such a demeanour does not press the case for Anwar’s candidacy for the prime minister’s job. It in fact shows him to be petulant and self-indulgent, unwilling to face the idea that his gambit almost resulted in Pakatan’s loss of another state.
He threw up a smokescreen with his finely tuned oration, stealing valuable time that could be used to discuss the important issues.
“For the record, I have talked about feudalism in the 51st Umno General Assembly where I said Datuk Onn Jaafar had previously said that the independence concept of our country does not mean bringing feudalism back to life,” he said in his speech. The question we’re willing to bet was bouncing around the heads of everyone listening was, “So what?”
This is not to say that the quality of politicians across the aisle is superior. Anwar, if nothing else, is a magnificent orator (when he’s not putting the Parliament to sleep with history sermons) and a charismatic figure.
What should we find across the aisle but Padang Besar MP Zahidi Zainul Abidin, who interrupted Anwar with this question: “What about the RM2.3 million armoured vehicle that was purchased for Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng?”
He asked the question without a hint of irony, despite the original claim being clearly classified as satire by its writer. Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad whacked him soundly around the ears for the audacity to quote a satirical claim.
