Something unusual happened in Parliament two days ago. A cabinet minister makes a full statement on a contentious issue and answers questions for 30. Normally, such matters are left to the deputy ministers or parliamentary secretaries, and follow-up questions allowed only to praise or are not relevant.

It is proof, if proof be needed, that when an active opposition exists, as now, the government is kept on its toes, and forced to reveal more than it wants to. It does not matter if the health minister, Chua Jui Meng, said less than the truth. It does not matter if what he said of former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim's medical problems was contentious. More important is that he did.

Self-interest runs through it. Anwar's spinal problem is now political, not surgical nor medical. It is a test of wills between him and the government on where surgery to ease his excruciating back pain is done. The government wants it done here, Anwar in Munich. But it spoiled its case so that public perception is that it is unnecessarily vindictive, petty, callous.

That is why Chua went into so much detail and said more than anyone else on the front bench. He lied about the man Anwar would like to operate upon him, that he is not the expert he is portrayed as, nor has he justified his claims with research papers in learned medical journals.

In flux

But he did not, obviously, go to the [#1] website [/#] of the surgeon's clinic in Munich where he could have got all the information he needed, including the papers he had published; it fills a page. He ignored all that to lay calumny on Dr Thomas Hoogland. Somehow one expected all this from Chua. His, and the government's, biggest headache now is Anwar's medical problems.

Be that as it may, it opens another vista of parliamentary scrutiny. The last time the Dewan Rakyat saw such openness was in the 1960s, with an active opposition from the Socialist Front, even if its MPs were, on occasion, detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

The man who led the opposition onslaught then was the late, lamented Tan Chee Khoon, whose uncanny ability to coax answers out of a reluctant cabinet earned him respect on both sides of the House. When he opened his hospital in the 1970s, it was the then prime minister, Abdul Razak Hussein, who declared it open.

There is as active an opposition now in the House as then. Then, a Malay prime minister confronted a Chinese leader of the opposition; now a Malay prime minister, a Malay leader of the opposition. The prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad faces opposition leader Fadzil Noor, who could, if circumstances change, exchange roles.

The Malay world is in flux. What caused it is how Mahathir humiliated Anwar. Chua could not but make the full statement he did. That he did so contentiously is only to be expected. The rules of parliamentary procedure is alien to the Barisan Nasional government as it is not to the opposition.

The opposition should let him be, not raise hackles about whether he lied or not. The die is cast. What Chua did puts his cabinet colleagues on notice that they should emulate him when a full statement is expected. They should also expect to answer fully questions raised by MPs, even if the Speaker says they need not, or face the wrath outside.

Rubber stamp

Parliament is used, all this while, as a rubber stamp. MPs are not often given Bills, even of constitutional amendments, to study them before debate; often they are given it a few hours before the debate and passed on certificates of urgency. The opposition did not have the numbers to make its views heard, and the government rode roughshod over them. So much so, Mahathir had the gall to announce a RM3 billion financial package at a press conference when the House was sitting, and refused to debate it inside.

Anwar's medical condition forced this subtle change. It took but a few days from Mahathir's refusal to Chua's full statement. There is reason for this. Anwar is, willy-nilly, the stumbling block to the government's well-being. Malay unity talks are stalled because it is to keep him and his party, Keadilan, out, and forge a political unity pact with PAS. But what concerns the Malay is not political but cultural unity.

Once, Umno, which dominates the Barisan Nasional government, controlled the political and cultural destiny of the Malays. Now, even its political hold is under attack. The Malay deserts it for the humiliation its leader afflicted on Anwar, a cardinal sin. In his eyes, a leader humiliating his chief is inexcusable.

Mahathir can hold on to the Malay political leadership by force and control, but it cannot sustain him if the cultural ground deserts. When Chua spoke at length about Anwar's medical problem, it was a feather in Fadzil's, not Mahathir's, cap. It was the most important cultural confrontation between the two men, and it was Mahathir who blinked.