THE Dewan Rakyat cannot discuss the Klang Valley flooding because there was only one item on the agenda, Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun said after calls from MPs to debate the current crisis.

“We only have one agenda today, that is the debate on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act,” Azhar told Dewan Rakyat today.

“It is also up to the minster to decide when they want to do a briefing and then inform me. This is how it is done.

“We have to follow the rules and not jump from issue to issue,” said the former lawyer in response to Lim Guan Eng (Bagan-PH), Ahmad Maslan (Pontian-BN) and Mohamad Sabu (Kota Raja-PH), who requested the floods be opened for debate. 

“We want the minster to tell us what is being done in the flood issue. As MPs, we are shocked by the number of people who have had to climb on to their roofs to escape the floods in Klang Valley,” Lim said.

Ahmad said that the MPs need to know what the government has been doing. 

“While the government has announced RM50 million and RM100 million as cash aid and funding for infrastructure, we need to know whether this is enough or who is receiving the aid etc.”

Mohamad, whose constituency covers Klang and parts of Shah Alam, which were the hardest hit in the flood, said the public deserves to know whether the police and military have been deployed for relief work.

“It’s been two days of floods and we still don’t know what the minister and prime minister are doing.”

However, Azhar rejected the calls and moved on to the amendment bill, which was subsequently postponed. The Dewan Rakyat was prorogued at 11.35am. – December 20, 2021.