Violet 'shut up' by Taib's men in Dewan after previous land alienation query

KUCHING - Second-term state assemblywoman for Pending, Violet Yong is an unhappy woman. In the just concluded state legislative meeting, it seemed that Violet was not only targeted to be 'shut up' but the Speaker allowed her the least time to speak, less than 10 minutes and that was heavily interjected and interrupted by jeers and boos from the BN backbenchers.

For the 15 opposition assemblymen, three from PKR and 12 DAP, turning down or even completely switching off the sound system is regularly used by the Speaker to shut them up, making them inaudible - much to the frustration of those who want to point out certain issues that they had worked hard on to raise in the August House. This practice started in the Dewan building.

Violet, who had taken pains to prepare her speech for the sitting, said it included all the woes faced by the people in her constituency, ranging from infrastructure problems to unfair policies by the state government.

Victimised because of the Monarda land alienation

Putting it down to the last November 4 state parliamentary sitting, Violet said she probably spoke too much then, resulting in part of her speech being deleted from the Hansard. During that speech, Violet spoke of a dormant company, Monarda Sdn Bhd, where 269 acres of state land in the city area were alienated to Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s children, and the then Deputy Chief Minister George Chan’s daughter, who happens to be married to Taib's son, Sulaiman. The price at which the land was alienated was a mere RM290,000 when the actual current market cost is way over RM300 million.

After getting her delayed Hansard on December 17, Violet was shocked to find that the paragraph concerning the Monarda issue was deleted. Despite writing letters and holding press conferences for answers, she was told by the Speaker that the paragraph was deleted due to technical or sound system problems. Hitting back at the Government, Violet retorted that for a RM300 million Dewan building, the sound system must be below par then and not justifiable of the amount paid for it by the taxpayers.

Even the Parliament Deputy Speaker Wan Junaidi Jaafar has said that in his 21 years in Parliament, he has not heard of any censorship when it comes to the Hansard, which surely must be kept sacred. He said disciplinary action will be taken against the elected representative but there was never any occasion that could justify any black out or editing of the Hansard.

RM300mil just for 2 sittings a year

During the recent sitting, Violet was barely in her first paragraph about the Speaker playing 'deejay' when she was interrupted and ordered to sit down. After an exchange of words and booing from the BN side, Violet agreed to move on to the next topic. She was however allowed only five minutes to speak. Violet tried to rush through her speech, but she was interrupted by the Speaker and told to sit down.

According to her, the Speaker told her that she was 'living on his hospitality' to speak and he then turned off the sound. She complained that for the BN assemblymen, they could drag on with their speeches for up to 20 minutes.

Violet called for the Dewan sittings to be extended for another 8 days to allow elected representatives to debate their points of views for the people. What is the point of having a RM300 million building just to hold two sittings per year, she asked.

She accused the Taib administration of not being interested to hear the problems of the people or providing solutions for issues brought to the attention of the state government.

The Dewan sitting, she concluded, is supposed to be a process to listen to the voice of the people through their elected representative, but it appeared that the Government is more interested in their own wheeling and dealing.

- Malaysia Chronicle