Commentary by Mustafa K Anuar 

FOLLY among the lawmakers usually foists itself on the august Dewan Rakyat at the expense of the electorate who generally prefer cleverness and civilised behaviour from political representatives. 

Certain MPs seem oblivious to the fact that many Malaysians take parliamentary sittings seriously because these are vital to address their interests and concerns. 

We may recall that in the past, certain lawmakers tended to take the liberty of morphing into pseudo-clowns. In the blink of an eye, they cracked jokes, the nature of which was way below the belt, metaphorically and literally. 

Imagine the precious time and patience wasted in trying to rein in these MPs – who in various ways insisted their sexist jokes were worth a listen – by annoyed peers, particularly women.

Other lawmakers may not be vulgar, but they are nonetheless irritating as well when they attempt to mislead us.  

For instance, the opposition lawmakers made a meal out of the recent use of only English in the bills to amend the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code. 

Such a complaint gave the impression it was part of a larger attempt by the present government to downgrade the status of Bahasa Malaysia, which would predictably irk Malaysians, particularly the Malay polity. 

Deputy law minister Ramkarpal Singh called them out on it, saying the bills were only in English because the texts of the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code were in English. 

Besides, similar procedures were adhered to by the opposition when it was previously the government. 

In other words, they criticised the sitting government for doing what they also did in the past – as if to test the memory of their opponents.  

But then, to rephrase a Mahathirian refrain, “Tak semua Melayu mudah lupa.” (Not all Malays forget easily.) 

Cliffhangers are a useful device in soap operas, keeping audiences on tenterhooks. But that doesn’t work well, if at all, in politics, as recently found out by Deputy Education Minister Lim Hui Ying and other MPs. 

She was not prepared to answer a legitimate query by Perikatan Nasional lawmaker Ahmad Marzuk Shaary, thus leaving him dissatisfied. 

The query on the allocation for the Supplementary Food Programme and the monitoring mechanism to ensure school pupils received nutritious food was sent to her ministry a few days beforehand, so there was no excuse for her to wear a blank look.   

Then, we have a lawmaker who takes parliament sittings seriously to a fault. Some might even call it acute paranoia. 

To be sure, Mohd Suhaimi Abdullah worries about the capability of the parliament security system in protecting MPs and parliamentary debates from being spied on by undesirable elements. 

The Langkawi lawmaker – who defeated the consummate and widely-read Dr Mahathir Mohamad in the last general election – wanted reassurance that what was said in the august chamber would not be heard by others outside the four walls of parliament. 

It appears that he is not aware that the goings-on in the Lower House must be made known to the general public, which explains the existence of livestream. Put another way, transparency and accountability should not serve as window dressing. 

The opposition MP also seemed to be uninformed of the vital role of the Hansard. For the uninitiated, Hansard is essentially the official published report of debates in parliament, thus, it is not supposed to be hidden from public view. 

Let it be known that even the intellectually challenging questions raised by Suhaimi eventually became public knowledge. 

It is feared, however, that missing MPs, particularly opposition leader Hamzah Zainuddin, Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin, and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang might not be privy to this open secret. – April 4, 2023.