FORMER MP Datuk Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi said he is embarrassed to see the chaos that had ensued during the two-day Dewan Rakyat sitting on Monday (Dec 19) and Tuesday (Dec 20).
The UMNO Supreme Council member said he was previously on the inside but now that he is a spectator watching from the outside, he now sees the “terrible behaviour” of MPs who were “screaming and calling each other ‘monkeys’”.
“Should thus culture of chaos be allowed to continue? The public who had tuned in to listen to the MPs debating are also turned off when their speeches were interrupted by parliamentarians who lack discipline,” he said in a Facebook post.
Puad, who was Batu Pahat MP from March 2008 to May 2013, went on to point out that many of the MPs are lawyers and former judges but yet when they are in Parliament, they “shout loudly and disobey the Speaker’s instructions.
“So, should the rules governing Parliament be amended to be stricter? If the anti-hopping law can be enacted, then perhaps it’s appropriate for the Standing Orders to be amended, too,” he remarked.
He said this may include disallowing other MPs from interjecting while an MP is speaking, adding that such a provision already exists in the Johor state assembly rules.
This, he added, would allow MPs to debate and air their views without disruption. – Dec 21, 2022
