Power supply to Parliament House was interrupted twice today, bringing the Dewan Rakyat proceedings to a halt each time.

malaysia parliament The first outage occurred about 11.50am while Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Noh Omar was winding up on points raised about his ministry during debate on the Supply Bill 2011.

This forced speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia to adjourn the sitting, later announcing that it would resume at 2.30pm.

Power was restored shortly after but another blackout occurred, which was promptly resolved.

By then the audio and visual equipment were not functioning and had to be re-set.

Prior to this, the Dewan Rakyat had resolved to extend today's sitting to 10.30pm.

‘Computer systems affected’

Met later, Works Minister Shaziman Abu Mansor told reporters that the breakdowns were caused by maintenance work on a clock, which is part of the landscaping of the Parliament grounds.

shaziman abu mansor “Because of that, there could have been an outage, therefore (causing) a trip. Maybe that is what caused the system in Parliament to have problems,” said the minister.

“It also affected the computer systems. So when the electricity came back on in less than 10 minutes, we had to start up the computer systems (which control the audio and visual equipment). This took some time, so (the sitting had) to be stopped,” he said.

He has since informed the Public Works Department director to avoid carrying out maintenance work during a sitting, unless it urgent.

“If not, it should be done only when the Parliament is not sitting, during rest days or in the evenings,” he added.