BN's Ranau MP Siringan Gubat was suspended from Parliament for three hours today by House speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia for interrupting him during a question-and-answer session this morning.

It happened when Gubat said ‘ ngam ' to Pandikar's decision not to give those who uttered unparliamentary words any more verbal warnings.

Siringan Gubat The word is Sabahan dialect for ‘correct', but Pandikar was not amused by Gubat ( photo ) and refused to accept his apologies. He then ordered him to leave the House until 2.30pm, when the House resumes after lunch.

It all started when Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa (PAS-Parit Buntar) accused "some narrow-minded quarters from the major Malay party" for abusing the social contract to cause tension between races in his supplementary question to Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Deputy Minister Teng Boon Soon.

At this point, some government backbenchers protested over the remarks. ‘ Bodoh ' was among the verbal abuse hurled at the PAS representative.

This irked Mujahid, prompting him to challenge the government MPs who had uttered the word to stand up if "they were really ‘anak jantan' (man enough)".

Pandikar who appeared angry over the commotion, had to interject and calm down the situation and soon after, he made a ruling that no verbal warnings would be given prior to action being taken against MPs who uttered unparliamentary words.

"If we want to make the sessions run more smoothly, it is your responsibility to not interject with negative words. This time, I will not give any more warnings. I will just ask people to leave (if they violate this)," said Pandikar sternly.

This was when Gubat, who is from Sabah's Upko, said ‘ ngam ' in support of Pandikar.

Met later by the press, the Sabah MP appeared unfazed with the ruling, saying that it was a "normal thing".

"It is a normal thing to happen in the House. I am not disappointed. I am sorry if it was not the right thing to say but when I apologised to him (Pandikar), he did not accept."

Abuse of social contract

Earlier, Mujahid had asked the deputy minister to define the social contract as stated in the Federal Constitution and the government's efforts to ensure that it was not abused to tarnish the harmonious relationship among the various races in the country.

According to Teng, the social contract existed even though it was not enshrined in the Federal Constitution following "unity achieved between Malay, Indian and Chinese leaders before Independence Day".

Teng added, "The social contract was made in order to protect bumiputera privileges, citizenship, language and religions of all races".

However, this did not convince Mujahid, who then said, "The social contract is not even a physical law. So there are some narrow-minded people from the major Malay party who use this argument to provoke other races. Where does your ministry stand on this?"

teng boon soon After all the commotion had subsided, Teng explained that the social contract was a fundamental base before the Federal Constitution was amended to fit in the needs of all the races in the country.