THE police were misguided and wrong in stopping lawmakers from entering Parliament House yesterday, said Ipoh Barat MP M. Kula Segaran.

“As a Member of Parliament, and each time I am elected as a MP, it is my solemn duty to the people of my constituency and nation, to bring their voices to Parliament.”

“The role of Parliament is vital to a vibrant democratic nation. Yesterday, as the nation looked in dismay and the world took notice, police blocked off the roads leading to Parliament. Yet, these police officers, when asked, could not even tell us under which provision of the law they were blocking off Parliament.”

“It was wrong for them to block the entrance to parliament,” said Kula, who has made a police report over yesterday’s events.

Yesterday morning, opposition MPs gathered on the road leading to Parliament to protest the postponement of the Dewan Rakyat sitting.

They were initially barred from entering the Dewan Rakyat by the police and FRU personnel.

The group, led by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, then walked to Dataran Merdeka where speeches were made against the Perikatan Nasional government.

The government was scheduled to explain its cancellation of the emergency ordinances without the king’s consent, and without tabling the ordinances in either House for debate.

The Prime Minister’s Office had called off Monday’s Dewan Rakyat sitting, and today’s Dewan Negara sitting citing Covid-19 risks after a number of cases were detected in parliamentary buildings.

Subsequently, Kuala Lumpur police chief Azmi Abu Kasim said police will summon the 107 MPs who gathered at Dataran Merdeka after they were not allowed to enter Parliament.

Kula slammed the Dewan Rakyat speaker for not voicing out against the incident yesterday.

He demanded Azhar Azizan Harun state an explanation following the debacle.

“Isn’t the speaker of the august house aware of what has been happening in the corridors of Parliament? Or he is not around to partake in this matter? Where is the speaker, why is he silent? As the speaker he should at least speak out so that all can hear him,” said Kula.

The former human resources minister urged the government to establish an independent commission to investigate and report through a White Paper in Parliament as to what went wrong yesterday.

He, however, added that it is only reasonable that the police is not tasked to investigate this case.

“The allegations of wrongdoing are levelled against the police; thus, they can’t be tasked to investigate their own abuses and mistakes. Surely, they cannot be the judge, jury and prosecutor in this matter.”

“Set up an independent commission to investigate and report back through a White Paper in Parliament as to what went wrong yesterday, why MPs were blocked from entering Parliament and proposals for future legislation to (prevent) this nonsense from ever happening again,” he stated. – August 3, 2021.