Malaysian 'kakistocracy' at its worst - three examples yesterday

 

MP SPEAKS | It was 'kakistocracy' in Malaysia at its worst – with three examples yesterday, especially assigning observers to tellers during parliamentary division voting which is a declaration that Members of Parliament in Malaysia cannot be trusted to carry out simple tasks.

This assigning must be the first of its kind in Commonwealth Parliaments but it sends out the wrong messages, firstly, that MPs cannot be depended upon to carry out simple tasks; and secondly, which is more serious, that MPs cannot be trusted at all.

This assigning was solely to avoid referring the Umno MP for Tasek Glugor, Shabudin Yahaya to the Committee of Privileges for reckless, negligent, and irresponsible violation of the Dewan Rakyat standing orders when carrying out his duties as a teller in the division voting on Monday during the Committee Stage debate on Budget 2021.

Shabudin should have been sacked as a teller in division voting in Parliament, but this had not been done, as he is still a teller for division voting in Parliament.

Parliament owes Malaysians an explanation as to why Shabudin is still a teller when he has been proved to be incapable of either performing a simple task or trusted to perform a simple task.

All that a teller is asked to do is stipulated in Standing Order 47(i) which states:

“When a division has been ordered, the tellers shall ask each member separately how he desires to vote, and the Setiausaha shall enter on the votes and proceedings a record of each member’s vote and of the members who abstained from voting.”

All Shabudin was required to do was to ask each MP in the block he was assigned to “how he desires to vote” and the C block that Shahbudin was assigned to had 26 MPs.

If he is unable to carry out such a simple task among 26 MPs, how can Shahbudin be fit to be an MP?

I do not agree that there was a miscount, as what happened was a gross violation of his privileges as a Member of Parliament, which is why I had proposed that he should be suspended as an MP.

This is a case where the cure is worse than the disease, for in refraining from referring Shabudin to the Committee of Privileges, all Malaysian MPs are made to appear to the world as untrustworthy or incompetent nincompoops.

I call for the system of observers to be removed and revert to the old system – and that Shabudin (photo) should be stripped of his position as teller for division voting.

The second example of Malaysia suffering from kakistocracy at its worst is the government's insensitivity to the rights of women and children shown by Home Affairs deputy minister Ismail Mohamed Said.

In his reply during Question Time in Parliament yesterday, Ismail cited national security concerns in denying citizenship for the children of Malaysian women with foreign spouses.

Is Ismail aware that Malaysia belongs to a minority of countries in the world where nationality laws do not grant women equality with men in conferring nationality to their children, which is a cause of statelessness and a concern for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) under its mandate to prevent and reduce statelessness?

UNHCR’s survey of nationality legislation reveals that equality between men and women relating to the conferral of nationality upon children has not yet been attained in 27 countries in the world, and Malaysia is one of these 27 countries.

I agree that Ismail’s ignorant and ill-thought comment showing insensitivity to the status of Malaysian women and children marks a major step backward in the battle for gender equality and discrimination in Malaysia.

In a modern, progressive, and just society, all citizens must be treated as equal before the law and be given equal rights to confer nationality on their children, regardless of gender.

In 2010, then home minister Hishammuddin Hussein (photo) said Malaysian mothers have the same rights as Malaysian fathers to pass on their citizenship to their children born overseas.

Why is Malaysia going backward? Will Ismail withdraw his comment and apologise for his insensitive statement in Parliament?

The third example of kakistocracy at its worst is the appointment of an “ignorant man” as menteri besar.

I did not say this. It was MIC president and former president of the Senate S Vigneswaran who slammed Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Mohd Nor for saying that MIC should be banned if it incited people to break the law – referring to the issue of a temple demolition and lack of funding for non-Muslim places of worship in the state.

Vigneswaran said: “This is what happens when you pick an ignorant man to be the MB. We have the right to ask because freedom of worship is enshrined in the Federal Constitution.

“If defending the rights of our community can be considered instigation, then PAS should be banned, judging from the number of demonstrations they have held on international issues and claims of some of them being linked to terrorists.

“This is what you get when immature people become MB. Does he remember his party president previously vowing not to demolish any temple?”

The Kedah menteri besar should provide a satisfactory explanation for the demolition of the 80-year-old temple in front of Alor Star station in July this year.

The temple was built during the colonial period before most Malaysian laws were enacted. Why was not alternative land provided for the temple before its demolition?

Is Muhyiddin Yassin proud that he is the prime minister of a kakistocracy? What steps he is taking to ensure that Malaysia is not mocked by the world as a kakistocracy?

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LIM KIT SIANG is the DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri. - Mkini

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.