Dewan Negara president Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar today reprimanded ministers who were absent from its proceedings, questioning if they deemed it to be beneath them.
He said that as the upper house of Parliament, the Senate’s sanctity must be respected, and the presence of ministers was important during question-and-answer sessions for their respective ministries.
“I would like to remind here that if the prime minister and both the deputy prime ministers can attend, why not the ministers?
“Is it because they think this place is too lowly for the ministers? This is the upper house of Parliament,” he was quoted as saying by Bernama.
Wan Junaidi (above) said this when Senator Amir Ghazali questioned Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Tiong King Sing’s absence in Dewan Negara, claiming that the latter had not attended question-and-answer proceedings in the last eight months.
In Tiong’s absence, Deputy Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Khairul Firdaus Akbar Khan answered questions in the Dewan Negara instead.
Kosmo reported Khairul defending Tiong, citing the latter’s busy schedule as the reason behind his lack of attendance.
“Regarding my minister (Tiong), he does want to answer the questions and has no intentions of being absent from Dewan Negara proceedings.
“Perhaps his schedule is not in line with the Dewan Negara proceedings. For your information, it is common for ministers to go on sales missions abroad to materialise our goals of the country becoming a main tourist destination,” he was quoted as saying.
Wan Junaidi had earlier reprimanded Khairul, whom he claimed was not providing detailed answers to matters raised to the minister and his ministry.
“Yang Berhormat (Khairul), you are mostly answering only on tourism products. What is being asked is about the conduct of tourism players and not merely tourism products. I hope the ministry can prepare more satisfactory answers,” said Wan Junaidi. - Mkini
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