'Walkout? You pulled the same stunt in 1999,' Liow reminds DAP

After coming under fire for joining the opposition walkout on the first day of the 14th parliament’s first session, MCA president Liow Tiong Lai has reminded Pakatan Harapan that DAP and other opposition parties had staged a similar walkout in 1999.

“Do not forget that the same incident had occurred in the Parliament’s Lower House in 1999. At that time, DAP with PAS and other opposition parties also left the Dewan.

“What is (Iskandar Puteri MP) Lim Kit Siang’s explanation on this? If the opposition’s lawmakers hold the same stand on the issue, there would be no issue of who is leading who. Lim should not twist words," he said in a statement today.

“In fact, Harapan played liar in yesterday’s controversy at Parliament.

"As a senior lawmaker, Lim not only failed to lambast, but also tried to cover up the mistakes. Most people do not agree to his behaviour,” he added.

Walkout in 1999

According to a Utusan Malaysia report from Dec 20, 1999, then-PAS president Fadzil Noor led the opposition bloc to question the legality of holding the first parliamentary sitting following the 10th general election.

“The cabinet only met on Dec 15, whereas the notice of the sitting was issued on Dec 13. The question is who advised the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to proclaim that parliament should sit this morning.

“As this involves provisions of the constitution, this is serious and this sitting is illegal, and my advice is that it be dissolved,” the late PAS leader was quoted as saying at the time.

The interruption came during the swearing-in ceremony, just as then-parliamentary secretary Mohamed Salleh Hassan was reading the Agong’s proclamation convening the session.

The opposition bloc – then made up of PAS, DAP, PKR and Parti Bersatu Sabah – also reportedly interrupted Mohamed Zahir Ismail’s election as house speaker.

Once he took his seat and tried to bring calm the proceedings, all 43 opposition MPs reportedly staged a walkout in protest of the legality of the sitting. They returned about an hour and 45 minutes later to take their oath of office.

'Don't emulate blindly'

Yesterday, nearly all BN and PAS MPs staged a walkout after questioning the legitimacy of Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof’s appointment as Dewan Rakyat speaker.

They later returned about an hour later to be sworn into office.

Lim said after that he was left baffled by the walkout, and urged the lawmakers not to blindly emulate the previous opposition.

“They must have cogent, coherent, reasonable and acceptable reasons for their walkouts, unlike their ridiculous walkout this morning,” he said yesterday. 

He also noted that if Umno and PAS could not provide these reasons, he does not expect MCA and MIC to be able to.

MCA decided on Wee walkout

In his statement, Liow also said that it was MCA that decided that its sole MP, Wee Ka Siong, should join the walkout. 

The party wants to defend the democracy and the rule of law that Harapan purports to uphold, he said, and decided to protest the apparent non-compliance to the Standing Orders concerning the appointment of the speaker.

“Regrettably, Lim has diverted attention by claiming that PAS had led Umno, MCA and MIC to leave the Dewan.

“Lim's claims are simply accusations thrown out of the blue. MCA sticks to our own stand.

“We left the Dewan out of our firm principle. It is entirely the choice of Umno and PAS to leave the Dewan as well, and this has nothing to do with MCA,” he said. -Mkini