The two stalwarts of opposition party DAP - chairperson Lim Kit Siang and his deputy Karpal Singh - returned to parliament today after a five-year hiatus and true to form marked the occasion by crossing swords with the august body's speaker and several government backbenchers.

The sitting today - parliament's first session after the 11 th general election - convened at 10am with the appointment of the Dewan Rakyat speaker Dr Mohamed Zahir Ismail.

After the speaker took his seat, Lim was seen standing up and waiting for a chance to speak. However, he sat down shortly after as Mohamed Zahir delivered a short speech which, among others, called for parliamentarians to ensure the House continued to be a viable and effective institution.

After the speaker's speech, Lim stood up again and proceeded with his 'motion of thanks' on the appointment of the speaker, who has held the office since1982.

"Congratulations, we wish to pay our tribute to Tun speaker ..." Lim said but was abruptly cut short by Mohamed Zahir who asked him to sit down citing standing orders which said no speech from the floor had been scheduled for this morning.

Lim then argued with him amid shouts from the backbenchers calling on the Ipoh Timor MP to follow parliamentary rules. Lim later reluctantly relented and abided by the speaker's ruling.

Right hand issue

The sitting then proceeded with the swearing in ceremony for the 219 parliamentarians' five-year term.

Leading the three-hour ceremony were Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, followed by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, MCA President Ong Ka Ting, MIC President S Samy Vellu and other top Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders.

The ceremony went on smoothly until it came to Home Affairs Minister Azmi Khalid's turn to take his oath of office.

After the minister was sworn in, Karpal suddenly stood up and told the speaker that most of the BN MPs did not raise their right hands while taking their oaths.

The Bukit Gelugor MP maintained that both common practice and the law required for the right hand to be raised if the oath was to be valid. Again, this led to a minor uproar with Mohamed Zahir ruling the objection irrelevant.

A light moment followed when Education Minister Hishamuddin Hussein Onn took his oath and had the MPs chuckling when he stressed that his right had was definitely raised during his oath-taking.

Kulai MP Lim Si Cheng from MCA and Sipitang MP Dr Yusof Yacob from Umno were later named as deputy speakers.

PAS' 'G7' team

The new Parliament, looking much like a five-star hotel after a refurbishment, also saw new members such as Puteri Umno chief Azalina Othman Said, Kelantan Umno liaison chief Mustapa Mohamed, former Penang deputy chief minister Hilmi Yahya and Johor MCA chief Dr Chua Soi Lek, who is now the health minister.

On the opposition front, first timers include DAP's Bandar Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen, PAS Dewan Muslimat (women's wing) chief Kalthom Othman and the party's Youth chief Salahudin Ayub.

Among the 219 MPs, the opposition has only 20 representatives - DAP (12), PAS (7) and Parti Keadilan Rakyat one.

PAS Tumpat MP Kamarudin Jaffar - the leader of what he dubbed as his party's 'G7' team - said despite PAS' parliamentary representation being slashed from 27 to 7, it would strive to "replace quantity with quality".

"Even though we only have seven MPs now, but with our varied backgrounds as religious scholars and professionals, we will continue to represent the people and raise issues that are of the rakyat's concern," he said when met at the Parliament's lobby.

To a question, Kamarudin said he did not see any difficulties to raise Islamic issues in the coming sittings with the DAP now leading the opposition as opposed to PAS previously. The two parties are at loggerheads over PAS' stated intention on establishing an Islamic state in the country.

"We know their stand, and they know our stand ... our relations in the parliament will remain as like what was previously," he said.

Three

absent

Keadilan's only seat is held by its president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail who won Permatang Pauh by only 590 votes after a nail-biting recount.

"I don't feel alone as there are other opposition MPs who are together with me in this struggle for social justice and freedom of speech," she told reporters.

Three MPs were unable to make it for their swearing-in today. They were Health Minister Chua (MP for Labis), the MP for Gua Musang Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and the MP for Alor Star, Chor Chee Heung.

According to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz, Chua is currently in Geneva for a World Health Organisation (WHO) conference, Tengku Razaleigh was indisposed and Chor was in Perlis to receive an award conferred onto him in conjunction with the Raja of Perlis' birthday.