ANALYSIS There’s reason to suspect that one of the more devastating left-right combinations in parliamentary politics in Malaysia belong to DAP Penang state assemblypersons Jagdeep Singh Deo and RSN Rayer.

NONE The use of pugilistic terms to describe the forensic manner in which the two lawyers go about their business is appropriate not only because of the overall effect on the Umno opposition – they are quite floored – but also because of the pair’s location in the house’s seating arrangements.

Facing Assembly speaker Abdul Halim Hussein, the Dato Keramat rep Jagdeep ( left ) sits towards the left, while the hulking presence of Seri Delima rep Rayer is ranged on the right.

Jagdeep scours the Umno defences with raking left jabs before Rayer ( right ), abetted by his supple Bahasa, wades in with punishing right hooks.

I NONE ndividually, they are a thorn in the side of those they chose to range themselves against; in combination, they leave the Umno opposition quite flabbergasted.

But the latter, on the evidence of yesterday’s second session of the third term of the assembly, appear to be responding to this assault in a way that elevates parliamentary discourse.

Azhar’s failure to apologise

Scratch his surface, the average Umno politician is a realist: he can be relied upon to be wary of any measure that goes against the common grain.

It’s only one crucial bit of realism that he evades: the rest of the Malaysian polity has moved on from an obsession with race whereas he seems permanently impaled on it.

NONE How so was reflected in the debate on the motion to suspend opposition leader Azhar Ibrahim (BN-Penaga) from the assembly for inflammatorily racist speech in a sitting last May.

The full import of the offending parts was exposed by the motion’s proponent, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, and could not be credibly gainsaid despite Azhar making a plausible case for its defects which were that he had already withdrawn the remarks in May’s sitting (the records attest it) and that the motion was composed as punitive afterthought.   

 

NONE An apology - the obvious thing to do under the weight of the evidence - was all that was required of Azhar to avoid suspension. But the opposition leader was having none of it.

The motion passed, duly ejecting him . Azhar’s failure to apologise was a pity because his deportment under pressure did credit to the office of opposition leader.

One supposes not having to say you are sorry is Penang’s Umno last line of defence against a ruling order now led by its chief bogey: DAP.

Umno’s diminished power

Again a pity, because its first line – reasoned, probingly composed questions, followed by compelling arguments against the first reading of the Freedom of Information Act that was tabled after Azhar’s ejection – was in plentiful evidence at yesterday’s sitting.

It was met with the counterthrusts of the Jagdeep-Rayer combination and some clever bit of parliamentary windbaggery from Phee Boon Poh (DAP-Sungai Puyu), the latter on the issue of whether there were two accounts, one haram and the other halal , for the RM100 payouts to Penang’s senior citizens, the subject of some forensic questioning by Umno’s Arif Shah Omar Shah.

guan eng and phee boon poh pc 250209 phee boon poh Arif was never going to get a straight answer from Phee ( left ), the state executive councilor in charge of health, caring society and environment.

That was less a reflection of the question’s merits than of the imbalance of numbers between the government’s and the opposition’s benches.

On the evidence of yesterday’s sitting, Penang Umno’s otherwise dignified resignation to the reality of their diminished power in the state assembly would have been the more bracing had their leader tendered that apology.  

As for the Jagdeep-Rayer combination – it’s an arresting feature among parliamentary acts of post-tsunami Malaysia and would stay that way if guided by the wisdom of Shakespeare’s saying that it’s excellent to have the strength of a giant but tyrannous to use it like one.

 

TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for close on four decades. He likes the occupation because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them.

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