First Day in Parliament

I am seated next to Dr Jeyakumar of Sungai Siput. He sits on my right. On my left is the MP for Penampang, Darrel Leiking. I am in good company. Dr Jeyakumar is a medical specialist who has but given up on medicine. Instead he spends more time as the MP for Sungai Siput. In the recent elections he defeated MIC’s Devamany.

Darrel Leiking is a successful lawyer practising in Kota Kinabalu. He has recently come onto the radar screen strongly protesting against the unjust refusal to grant entry for MP Nurulizzah Anwar into Sabah.

The first day started off badly for the BN lawmakers. The first order of business was the election of the Speaker. PM Najib proposed Pandikar Amin Mulia, the incumbent speaker. Pakatan on their part proposed the name of a former high court judge, Abdul Kadir Sulaiman. The proposals were put to the ballot.

A point of order was raised by Pakatan lawmakers questioning the necessity of signing AND putting up the name of the signatory. Standing order #4(4) states that the member needs only to sign the ballot. The name of the member is not required. Once the ballot is signed AND the name of the member is stated, the vote is no more confidential.

This is of course a trivial matter. But parliamentary business is not to be trivialised.  If the standing orders provide so, then it must be followed to the letter. Failure to stick to the letter, suggests that a sloppy mind is at work. Otherwise, what’s the point of having that particular standing order?

Having to clearly state down your name suggests that even in the trivial business of electing a speaker, the leader of the BN government wants to ensure 100% compliance. He has no confidence in the conduct of his party men perhaps mindful of the rumours circulating around, that BN MPs are abandoning him.

Later, the speaker was perhaps playing one-upmanship when he stated that actually the elected MPs cannot raise points of order because they have not taken oath as MP. They are merely present at the invitation of the speaker of parliament to witness the formal declaration of him as speaker.

The Standing Order reads: On the first day of the meeting of the House after a general election, members having assembled at the time and place duly appointed and being seated in accordance with the provisions of Standing Order 2, the Setiausaha shall read the Proclamation of the Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong by which the meeting was summoned, and thereafter the Order of Business on such day shall include—

Which to me means, when the Setiausaha duly and dutifully made such declaration, the business of the House starts and elected members are therefore able to deliberate on such matters related to the Order of Business even before the Speaker is formally declared. Otherwise, how could we affirm his formal declaration?

If these verbal skirmishes are an indicator for the coming days, this 13^th parliament will be a lively session.