Opposition walks out as quarantined MPs appear in Parliament

Chan Kok Leong Hailey Chung Wee Kye Chan Kok Leong, Hailey Chung Wee Kye Updated 3 years ago · Published on 14 Dec 2020 1:28PM · 1 Comments

The opposition has staged a walkout in Dewan Rakyat after lawmakers who were under Covid-19 quarantine orders, including Health Minister Adham Baba and Human Resources Minister M. Saravanan, were allowed to attend Parliament. – Facebook pic, December 14, 2020.

THE opposition has staged a walkout during the division vote for the Federal Territories Ministry budget after three MPs who were undergoing Covid-19 home quarantine turned up in Parliament.

Just before the walkout, Dr Xavier Jayakumar (Kuala Langat-PH) asked why there were three MPs in the public gallery clad in personal protective equipment (PPE).

“It’s better to regulate than to allow MPs to break the quarantine SOP,” said speaker Azhar Azizan Harun.

When pressed on the issue by Xavier, Azhar said: “Last Thursday, one MP (from your side) came to vote when he was supposed to be under quarantine.

“Hence it is better to regulate this than to let them break quarantine,” he added.

But the answer did not go down well with the opposition.

“You are making a mockery of the law,” said Xavier as he got up to leave the hall after opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim (Port Dickson-PH) signalled to the opposition to walk out.

The budget for the Federal Territories Ministry was approved with 110-7 votes, 31 abstentions and 72 absentees.

Earlier in the morning, Azhar told Dewan Rakyat that three MPs have applied to director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah to let them take part in the voting process in Parliament. 

“I understand there are three MPs who have asked the director-general of health to attend Parliament tomorrow.

“They will be brought by an ambulance and they will have to wear PPE and sit in a separate room before coming to vote,” said Azhar yesterday.

Last Friday, Dewan Rakyat were told that three MPs – Health Minister Dr Adham Baba (Tenggara-BN), Human Resource Minister M. Saravanan (Tapah-BN) and P. Prabakaran (Batu-PH) - would be quarantined after coming into close contact with Covid-19 positive persons.

The three MPs were told to quarantine themselves and were given home surveillance orders for 14 days.

Following that, Dewan Rakyat secretary Nizam Mydin Bacha Mydin issued a statement to say that the three could still attend Parliament if they get an approval from Noor Hisham. – December 14, 2020.

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Comments

  • The policy makers asked the nation to adapt to the new norms but apparently the policy makers themselves are unable to adopt it. Under such trying times must we applied the condition that a MP must be in attendance to cast their vote? Those days people used pigeon to sent across messages, in WW 1 some army personnel were used as massagers of course WW II improved things much better. In todays world can we used IT instead of sticking to written procedures and get things moving forward? Worst-case scenarios used a special seal envelope and pass it to the grab drivers to deliver it to the Speaker head.

    Posted 3 years ago by Teruna Kelana · Reply