Hamzah embarrasses, Johari shines

 

From Ibrahim M Ahmad

Hamzah Zainudin thoroughly embarrassed himself, his colleagues and all Perikatan Nasional voters and apologists with his maiden speech as opposition leader on Monday.

With the country’s economic outlook for 2023 looking bleak and economists predicting slower growth in the face of challenging external conditions and slowing domestic demand, Hamzah’s first speech in the newly reconstituted Dewan Rakyat was his opportunity to show the opposition bloc’s priorities for the new parliamentary term.

Economic opportunities are few and far between and job openings scarce in Kelantan, Terengganu, Perlis and Kedah, where PN dominates, so this was the Larut PN MP’s chance to showcase his 74-seat bloc’s appetite to go toe-to-toe with the majority on issues that matter to the rakyat.

He did not. Instead, he fell back on the tired routine of taking a cheap shot at the prime minister.

Disguising his comments as showing concern for prime minister Anwar Ibrahim and the nation, Hamzah succeeded in what he unmistakably intended to do – which was to ensure that Hansard recorded him as calling Anwar a “homosexual prime minister”.

This he did by reading out the headline of a news story which he claims appeared in an obscure Italian news portal on Nov 24, shortly after Anwar was named the nation’s 10th PM.

He then went on to state – again for posterity – that Anwar was sacked by Umno for his alleged homosexual tendencies, but that having received the King’s pardon, Umno was now happy to accept him as prime minister.

It was a display of such poor taste and would have been denounced if it were made by a schoolboy in a class debate, never mind the leader of the opposition in Parliament.

That was not the only time Hamzah embarrassed himself in a mortifying 10-minute speech.

He called the memorandum of understanding (MoU) that sealed the unity government’s formation a document that “stifles, damages and harms democracy” apparently because it requires MPs within the unity government to vote en bloc.

In doing so, he conveniently forgets that he was himself privy to a secret MoU signed with ninth PM Ismail Sabri Yaakob in August last year in a move that kept his PN coalition in government after its own backdoor administration which usurped the rakyat’s 2018 mandate collapsed in a heap.

He also ignores (or maybe does not know) basic parliamentary concepts such as voting according to party and coalition lines and discipline.

Hamzah even went on to threaten that there are MPs within the unity government who are “waiting for the right time” to rebel against what he called the “oppression” they are apparently labouring under, seemingly hinting that the despicable “Sheraton Move” may rear its ugly head again.

In effect, what the PN secretary-general said was that the unity government must brace itself for more politicking. It must also beware of a Trojan horse in its midst.

Hamzah’s chilling message is that the opposition, comprising 74 MPs, which is the full complement of the PN contingent in Parliament and no one else, will be playing up politics and religion in the new Dewan Rakyat.

The rakyat can therefore expect no solutions or constructive criticism from them on issues that truly matter.

What we can expect, however, is for PN to play up racial and religious sentiments with utmost fervour over the next five years in a bid to destabilise the government and the country.

That means the unity government must look inwardly for solutions to the troubles facing the country.

Thankfully, at the same sitting we also saw a glimmer of hope.

Expertly sidestepping tensions in the house, Johari Ghani, the BN MP for Titiwangsa, called for MPs to create a different political environment from the previous four wasted years of politicking, so that the economic malaise facing the country can be addressed.

In a calmly delivered data-driven speech, he showed how the country’s economy was lagging behind our regional neighbours.

Pointing to a stagnant gross domestic product (GDP) and an unhealthy imbalance between investment and consumption growth, Johari said Malaysia did not possess sustainable economic growth. This was reflected in the fact that the country’s job creation numbers were significantly lower than the number of graduates it produces, he said.

He added that foreign investment into Malaysia also suffered since 2018 due to the political instability in the country, with Indonesia pulling in almost triple Malaysia’s figures annually since then.

It was by far the best performance by an MP in the house over the two-day sitting, even drawing a remark from another MP who said: “Here is one who qualifies to be finance minister.”

Johari Ghani has set the bar for what the rakyat expects of their MPs in terms of decorum and content. Nothing less will ever do again. - FMT

Ibrahim M Ahmad is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.