Pakatan Rakyat MPs today wore typical black lounge suits to the Parliament instead of the customary protocol white regalia while attending the Agong’s speech to officially open this year’s Parliament session, as a sign of “protest”.

While the white regalia is normally worn by all 222 house members, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim said Pakatan MPs wore their lounge suits, which is their everyday attire on a normal Parliament sitting, as a sign of protest against “injustice and abuse of power”.

Pakatan had already announced its intention to boycott the parade and the subsequent royal banquet because Anwar said his party does not want to rub shoulders with those who are “ruthless and cruel”.

“We attended (the Agong’s speech) as a sign of loyalty to the Agong,” he said.

Pakatan will also boycott tomorrow’s Parliament sitting en masse, leaving only BN MPs for the first day of full sitting.

In any case, the morning parade was a rather subdued affair that had to be moved indoors and not in the Parliament field because of the bad haze situation .

Anwar confirmed that he had already written a letter to the Agong to inform him of the reasons behind their boycott.