CONFIRMED! Malaysia a 'Robert Mugabe' Parliament & BN a 'COMPLETE FAILURE'

The Speaker of Malaysia’s parliament brought his chair into disrepute today by throwing out the MP for Padang Serai from Parliament.

The crux of the matter was that N.Surendran knew his standing orders and Pandikar Amin has never had to. Pandikar Amin is now guilty of committing the glaring injustice of ejecting an MP from Parliament, when it was he himself who was guilty of crass ignorance.

In the last 5 years as Speaker, Pandikar has never met so relentless a challenge on adherence to the rules of parliamentary conduct as he has faced from the PKR MP for Padang Serai.

Erskine May’s rules prescribe fair-play for both sides, but fair-play is anathema to the goonish Barisan Nasional. BN likes to pretend to be fair though, so that they can pretend to not be the low-brow hoodlums that they, mostly, are.

Fair play impossible in a Robert Mugabe Parliament

It also did not help that Surendran had on Monday called the House a "Robert Mugabe Parliament" for the skewed rules made up by the Umno-BN lawmakers, which he said had made it practically impossible for the Opposition to express the wishes of its voters.

The Malaysian Parliament was ineffective. A sham, said Surendran.

And Wednesday was not exactly the right day for the Umno-BN to allow its 'face' to be scratched again. Soon after kicking Surendran out from the Hall, it became clear why Pandikar had wanted to show 'who's Boss!'.

Lawmakers suddenly found on their tables the controversial amendments proposed to the Prevention of Crime Act 1959 that Surendran and his PKR colleagues Nurul Izzah and Tian Chua had warned about. The hue and cry from the Opposition, civil society and the people over these draconian changes to the law have yet to play out.

Respect is EARNED

In the case of the petition raised by N Surendran, Section 14 of the Orders specifically state that it should be raised before question-time. Having done precisely that, Surendran was ejected by an uninformed Pandikar.

Pandikar then spent 5 minutes trying to justify himself. His seniority as an MP, groaned Pandikar, was not being respected by Surendran. The day before, Pandikar had also hit out at Surendran, saying that he has barely had time to warm his MP’s seat. He was trying to imply perhaps, that everybody should just accept Pandikar’s own, and generally ill-informed, interpretation of the Standing Orders.

While Surendran may be in his first term MP, he is a hardened veteran of decades of activism against an authoritarian regime, including during the time of the lunatic Dr.Mahathir. Pandikar discounts that at his peril.

Vegetating in an MP’s seat for multiple terms and living off the state is not, for Pandikar’s information, a particular qualification for anything. If Pandikar wants respect, he must earn it by being a genuinely non-partisan Speaker. Up till today, he is anything but.

Pretence that the West must NO LONGER IGNORE

In fact, Malaysia’s Parliament is an undemocratically run institution used to rubber-stamp dubious BN legislations.

This pretence of democracy is convenient to the ruling elite of Umno who crave the respect and acceptance of the international community. The opposition is given scant room to speak, there are no opposition days, and private members bills never get a hearing.

Surendran had just been appointed to the select committee on parliamentary rules of which Pandikar is the chairman. It is strange that Pandikar’s first act is to order his colleague on that committee out. It bodes ill for parliamentary democracy in Malaysia.

Surendran will, in all likelihood, be back in Parliament tomorrow, and he is owed an apology by the Speaker. As for Pandikar, he should perhaps spend some time reading the Standing Orders and reviewing his Erskine-May. It might help him look less a fool next time.

MAILBAG