Pakatan MPs squabble over whether one called another ‘stupid’

Pakatan Harapan MPs Edmund Santhara and Cha Kee Chin caused a stir in the Dewan Rakyat.

KUALA LUMPUR: Two Pakatan Harapan MPs caused a commotion in the Dewan Rakyat here today over whether one of them had called the other “stupid”.

Edmund Santhara (PH-Segamat) had been responding to a reply by human resources minister M Kula Segaran about late hours when Cha Kee Chin (PH-Rasah) muttered something away from his microphone.

Santhara turned around and said: “Sorry, I have a right. I have my floor, all right?”

Later, while Santhara was speaking to the minister, Cha could again be seen muttering away from his microphone, this time sparking a fierce reaction from the Segamat MP.

“I ask for Rasah to retract his statement, he called me stupid. I ask him to retract. I ask him to retract!,” said Santhara.

Cha responded by saying there was no connection as it was not on record.

In reply, Santhara said: “I’m not the kind to get angry easily but this is unacceptable in this honourable house. I want it to be on record that I will never call someone stupid and I will not allow someone to call me stupid. This is not the first time.”

Santhara had earlier asked about the Employment Act, to which minister Kula said he would give a written reply as the proceedings had gone beyond the stipulated time.

Santhara responded by saying: “Although I finish my programme at three or four in the morning and sleep for only two to three hours, I will still be here until the night every day. But this usually happens.

“I find that when there are no officers at the back who can answer my questions, then the minister purposely doesn’t answer my question. This is a simple way, I don’t blame the minister.”

It was at this point that Cha was seen making his muffled remark. - FMT