COMMENT | Speaker must practise what he preached
COMMENT | On the election campaign trail in the past, one politician is used to thumping his chest and saying to a selected audience: “I am Padayappa” – a Hindu God who stayed in six hill stations in India with six different temples across Tamil Nadu dedicated to him.
“I am not a Tamil. I am a Malay, I am not MIC, I am Umno”, he is shown on one of the many videos on YouTube.
“But my heart, soul and blood and what’s beneath my skin are with the (Tamil) people,” he says in Tamil. For good measure, former premier Najib Abdul Razak’s name is brought into the picture and told his audience that Najib has not forgotten the Tamil people.
Baling MP Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim is an orator – fluent in Bahasa Malaysia and his mother tongue, Tamil. Perhaps his experience as a car salesperson has become handy.
But unlike the streets and showrooms, speaking in Parliament is different. He had many encounters in the august House including...
COMMENT | On the election campaign trail in the past, one politician is used to thumping his chest and saying to a selected audience: “I am Padayappa” – a Hindu God who stayed in six hill stations in India with six different temples across Tamil Nadu dedicated to him.
“I am not a Tamil. I am a Malay, I am not MIC, I am Umno,” he is heard as saying on one of the many videos on YouTube.
“But my heart, soul, blood and what’s beneath my skin are with the (Tamil) people,” he says in Tamil. For good measure, former premier Najib Abdul Razak’s name is brought into the picture as he told his audience that Najib has not forgotten the Tamil people.
Baling MP Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim is an orator – fluent in Bahasa Malaysia and his mother tongue, Tamil. Perhaps his experience as a car salesperson has become handy.
But unlike the streets and showrooms, speaking in Parliament is different. He had many encounters in the august House including a debate on his Preston University MBA which Serdang MP Ong Kian Meng alleged was purchased from a degree mill. He also had an infamous exchange of words in Tamil with a then opposition MP.
All said, his orations would be incomplete if he does not drop the names of Najib or his wife Rosmah Mansor. The affidavits made by litigants in many civil suits including the infamous one by PI Bala can attest to this.
His run-in with the law is on record and his trial starts in two months. But despite such a background and record (which are nothing to write home about), his show of arrogance or stupidity (whichever suits the reader), one would not have ventured into what he did in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
His attempt to inject racism and sexism may be reflective on the haughtiness and the superiority complex of many on the government side, who seem to suddenly enjoy self-importance and pre-eminence after being sent and having spent almost two years on the opposition bench.
You can’t term it exuberance or first-day blues, especially that Azeez (above) is a seasoned politician and a political “attack dog” for the party. Before anyone accuses me of calling him names, let me clarify that the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the phrase as a person “noted for harsh, personal, and usually public verbal attacks against others.”
Most Malaysians have not forgotten the imprudence of Jasin MP Mohd Said Yusof and Kinabatangan MP Bung Mohtar Radin in previous sittings when racist and sexist remarks were uttered and no attempts were made to punish them.
In hindsight, many are of the view that Azeez’s effort was an orchestrated move to adjourn the House when it became obvious that the newly minted Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun could no longer control the House.
After all the brouhaha with Azhar seemingly allowing chaotic scenes, De facto Law Minister Takiyuddin Hassan tabled a motion to adjourn the sitting long before the scheduled time to put an end to the day of shame more than drama.
Azhar had already set a record of sorts – eight minutes into occupying the speaker’s chair, he had ordered Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad out of the House. But his inexperience more than his ability to hold a tight rein over MPs is what caused the magnitude of problems that followed.
But Azhar should have reminded himself of his thoughts in the critical video – “The Art of the Matter” published by The Malaysian Insight three years ago.
The words in that video are telling indeed: “Another failure that we saw was the speaker’s utter failure to control unruly behaviour.
“To warn a certain MP from being unruly, (using) rude, crude language and even (making) sexist remarks. We are in 2018, last year was 2017 and (at the time) there were MPs who were a minister or deputy minister who used sexist remarks on a lady member of Parliament. The speaker just let it go,” he said.
Azhar noted that the speaker must be someone of integrity, fiercely independent and well-versed in Parliamentary affairs. This, he reasoned, would enable a civil but robust debate on matters of public importance.
But all that was lacking with Azhar yesterday. He seemed to have lost his independence, and just like the speaker he complained of, his was an utter failure to control unruly behaviour of MPs.
R NADESWARAN has covered sittings in the past when unruly behaviour was rare and there was decorum, civility and mutual respect for members and the House. Email him at citizen.nades22@gmail.com with your comments.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
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