The Penang legislative assembly sitting was disrupted this morning when an opposition assemblyperson lost his temper and shouted at a Pakatan Rakyat state executive councillor over a statement about disabled people.

Roslan Saidin (Umno – Pinang Tunggal) lost his cool and shouted at Phee Boon Poh (DAP – Sungai Puyu) when the latter demanded that he retract his alleged insult on mute persons.

penang state assembly 181108 abdul halim hussain

However, the tense atmosphere dissipated when Speaker Abdul Halim Hussain ( right ) ordered Roslan to observe House rules and keep his emotions in check.

"An elected representative should not lose his temper. This noble House should not be marred by emotional outburst," Abdul Halim said.

Roslan was debating the state government's 2009 budget when he chided Pakatan Rakyat elected representatives for always blaming the previous Barisan Nasional-led administration for all the ills in the state.

"It's easy to blame others. One should bury the past and carry on with one’s work. If one were to talk to an orang bisu (mute person), surely he would not be able to reply to the allegations," said Roslan.

"A learned person would be able to reply and reveal all the good things done by Umno and BN."

At this juncture, Phee interrupted Roslan and demanded that he apologised to the House for insulting disabled people.

"Mute people can reply via sign language. You are insulting them," said Phee.

This riled Roslan up, prompting him to raise his voice. "I did not insult mute people. Hear me out carefully. Don't make wild allegations," shouted Roslan, the Kepala Batas Umno division youth leader, who neither apologised nor retracted his statement.

What about ‘Umno’?

Later Roslan was ticked off by government backbencher VS Raveetharan (PKR – Batu Uban) for making a fuss over the state government’s proposal to erect multi-lingual signboards in heritage zones in Georgetown.

He said was Roslan a hypocrite for saying the multi-lingual signboards were a threat to the status of Bahasa Malaysia but was still using an English abbreviation - Umno - to refer to his party.

"Umno is a short form for United Malays National Organisation. Why not change it?" asked Raveetharan. Roslan declined to reply.