Question time in parliament was abnormally quiet today. It was the case of missing Barisan Nasional members of parliament to ask questions, absent government officials to answer them and officials attempting to answer questions not pertaining to their ministries.

All these got Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang all angry, prompting him to label Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's government as "half-past-six government".

Some 11 questions were skipped today in the Dewan Rakyat because the BN MPs who posed the questions were not present to ask the questions to the respective ministries.

To make things worse, the absent officials from ministries caused some other questions to be left unanswered.

And for two questions which were posed to the Defence Ministry, answers were attempted by Finance Ministry parliamentary secretary Hilmi Yahaya and Natural Resources and Environment parliamentary secretary Sazmi Miah respectively.

Naturally they were ill-equipped to answer the questions, with both requesting for a written reply to be given as they did not have additional information on the supplementary questions posed for the queries.

And to add the frustration, there were ministry officials who were present but did not have proper answers.

Irresponsible, useless government

Lim (DAP-Ipoh Timur) who interjected during a question which was answered by minister in the Prime Minister's Department, said that it was very inappropriate for the ministry officials to be present in the Dewan Rakyat without having the answers for the questions posed at their ministries.

"How could this happen? Notice was given two months ago on the questions that will be asked and they can still say that they don't have the answers," Lim said.

"This is a half-past-six government. Barisan Nasional is very irresponsible, useless government even though they have the majority of seats," he said.

To calm things down, Dewan Rakyat speaker Ramli Ngah Talib advised all BN MPs as well ministry officials to be present in Parliament, whether or not they have the replies for their questions.

Speaking to the reporters in the parliament lobby later, Lim urged Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Aziz to keep a record of all delinquent BN MPs.

He said that it was utterly shameful that so many MPs played truant.

"Either the minister, his deputy or the parliamentary secretary must be present. It doesn't matter if they want to answer the questions, but they have to be here," Lim said.

Where is the finance mnister?

Later, when Hilmi Yahaya was winding up the debate on the Supply Bill 2008 and the Development Expenditures Estimates 2008, Fong Po Kuan (DAP-Batu Gajah) demanded to know the reason for the absence of Finance Minister Abdullah.

Fong wanted to know why Abdullah, who is also the prime minister, was not in the Dewan Rakyat to listen to the debates when the bills were tabled by his ministry.

"The bills were tabled by his ministry, but he's not here today. He has advised the king to appoint him as the finance minister but he's not performing his duties. Is this fair to the rakyat?" she asked.