PARLIAMENTARIANS need to read the rules, customs and traditions of the Westminster parliament

The Westminster parliament is one of the oldest institutions of its kind in the world. As weird as the institution is old are its rules, which the Malaysian parliament has inherited.

One of such rules is that members of parliament (MPs) must always refer to one another in the third person. MPs are not allowed to refer to each other by name.  Instead, their constituency is used to identify them; for example, “the member for (constituency)”.

When referring to ministers, the name of their ministry is used; for example, “the minister of (cabinet position)”.

If an MP is alleged to have broken the rule, any other MP may stand and say: “Mr/Madam speaker, I rise on a point of order” or simply “point of order”. An MP who is speaking and is interrupted by such an objection must immediately sit.

The speaker will duly acknowledge the MP raising the point and say: “Please explain your point.” After the explanation is made, the speaker will decide whether the point is “well taken” or “not well taken.”

If the speaker decides that the point is “well taken”, this means that he or she agrees that the rule of the House has been broken by the MP, and he or she must apologise to the House before continuing with his or her speech.

The speaker may at any time require an MP to apologise for breaking the rules of the House. If the MP refuses to apologise, the speaker may have the sergeant-at-arms remove him or her. When this happens, the speaker calls the person by his or her name, rather than by title.

On Monday, a “point of order” was raised by the MP for Pasir Salak. The point of order was the Dewan Rakyat Standing Order No. 36(5) which disallows an MP from referring to another MP by name. It was raised after the MP for Bagan referred to the government of Muhyiddin Yassin in his supplementary question to the Prime Minister.

The Dewan Rakyat Hansard recorded the deputy speaker as saying: “Saya teruskan.”

What followed were exchanges between the MP for Arau and the deputy speaker:

Shahidan Kassim (Arau): “Tuan Yang di-Pertua, Peraturan Mesyuarat telah dikeluarkan. Kalau Tuan Yang di-Pertua tidak setuju, sebut tidak setuju. Kalau tidak, apa guna Peraturan Mesyuarat?”

Timbalan Yang di-Pertua (Alice Lau Kiong Yieng): “Kalau Yang Berhormat Arau tahu Peraturan Mesyuarat, Yang Berhormat Arau pun tidak boleh berdiri sekarang dan berucap.”

Beberapa ahli: “Duduk, duduk.”

Realising his failure to raise “point of order” before speaking, the MP for Arau said:

“Saya berdiri di bawah Peraturan Mesyuarat 36(6). Yang Berhormat Bagan menyebut nama Tan Sri Muhyiddin. Dia tidak boleh sebut nama macam itu, dia kena sebut kawasan – Pagoh. Dia bersangka jahat kepada Tan Sri Muhyiddin.”

Standing Order No. 36(6) disallows an MP from imputing improper motives to any other member.

Further exchanges followed between MPs in the opposition block and MPs in the government block before the deputy speaker clarified that she had made a ruling.

The ruckus – yet another at the start of the current parliament sitting – would not have ensued if the speaker, deputy speakers and MPs understood the Standing Order of the House as well as the rules, customs and traditions of the Westminster parliament.

Parliamentarians, including speakers, need to read Erskine May’s “A Treatise upon the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament”, an authoritative and influential work on parliamentary procedure and constitutional conventions affecting Parliament.

Rather than a set of rules, May provides a description of how procedure in both Houses of Parliament have evolved and the conventions that apply.

As Quran ordains, iqra (read) . – May 24, 2023.

* Hafiz Hassan reads The Malaysian Insight.