Call to suspend Radzi over ‘rude behaviour’ unreasonable, says Zuraida

 

Former Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin said shouting matches in the Dewan Rakyat are a ‘norm’.

PETALING JAYA: Former Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin has criticised a call by political aides to government MPs for Perikatan Nasional’s Radzi Jidin to be suspended over his alleged rude behaviour in the Dewan Rakyat, labelling it unreasonable.

Zuraida said the spat between Radzi and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in the lower house when debating the mid-term review of the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) was a norm in Parliament.

“Even if some government MPs were uncomfortable with what the Putrajaya MP (Radzi) said, such debates in Parliament are part of a democratic process that needs to be respected by all,” she said in a statement today.

Ejecting Radzi from the Dewan Rakyat, on the other hand, was undemocratic, she said, “especially when it was Anwar who had made such a provocative accusation”.

“It is unreasonable to call for Radzi’s suspension as it merely restricts the freedom of speech of an MP.”

Zuraida, now the deputy president of NGO Muafakat Nasional, also accused Dewan Rakyat Speaker Johari Abdul of being biased by booting Radzi out.

Two days ago, the council of political aides to government MPs demanded that Radzi be suspended over his “rude behaviour”.

In a statement, council chairman Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin called on law and institutional reform minister Azalina Othman Said to initiate the move to suspend the Putrajaya MP.

He said a suspension would serve as a lesson to all MPs, adding that Radzi should not be let off the hook over such “insolent behaviour”.

Radzi was ejected from the House by Johari on Tuesday after lashing out at Anwar and getting into a shouting match with government backbenchers. His removal resulted in a walkout by opposition MPs.

Radzi had repeatedly demanded that Anwar retract remarks he made against him and his coalition, interrupting the prime minister’s winding-up speech on the 12MP mid-term review.

Earlier, Anwar, when explaining the conditional discharge granted to deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in his corruption case, said that while Radzi could “laugh, you (PN) did the same thing when it was your (PN’s) administration”. - FMT