of a right hand, old hand, & heavy hand

haha. martin is at it again. good write-up here, hence i’m producing it here verbatim in it’s full glory.
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Of a right hand, old hand, & heavy hand

By Martin Jalleh

When the premiership was handed over to him, Pak Lah had promised that much-needed change was close at hand.The nation would see a gentler hand.

But of late, things seem to be getting out of hand in the country. The alarming rate of crime, violence against women, accidents, the rise in food prices, etc. they all worry us.

Naturally the rakyat would expect all elected representatives — government backbenchers and opposition — to work hard hand in hand towards the public’s well-being and safety.

Any MP who is dedicated and committed to the common good would have his or her hands full and would have no time nor thought for the frivolous and foolish.

The PM’s motion to ‘hand over’ Member of Parliament (MP) Karpal Singh, to the Parliament Privileges Committee for disciplinary action therefore is disappointing and reveals an emerging heavy hand.

Make no mistake about it, the sad tragedy of a parliament dominated by an unthinking bunch of MPs ever ready for a show of hands at the leader’s beckoning is far from over.

Karpal Singh had on May 17 protested against MPs who had not raised their right hand during the oath-taking ceremony. Speaker Dr Mohamed Zahir Ismail had overruled Karpal’s protest.

Karpal, who himself later conceded, had however cited the wrong legislation. Alas, Mohamed Zahir should know that though Karpal is well-versed with the law like the back of his hand — it is not easy to remember off hand the exact source of every parliamentary procedure.

Karpal, at a press conference revealed his mistake and the Act he should have referred to. He also clarified that the legality of the oath was not affected. It was merely a case of on the one hand the right law and on the other, the wrong source.

But with hand over his head, Mohamed Zahir, on June 1, wrote a letter to Karpal to seek his explanation for citing the wrong Act. He said the DAP MP has ‘misdirected’ the House and told him to reply to his letter or action would be taken against him.

The Speaker’s ‘handiwork’ was mind-boggling. In the first place, he had overruled Karpal’s protest thus rendering it inconsequential. No explanation was really necessary. Further, why would Karpal want to intentionally ‘misdirect’ the House?

Secondly, what Karpal had tried to highlight during the oath-taking ceremony was right. In fact this was the inference of the Speaker when he had in a circular dated April 8 reminded parliamentarians to raise their right hand when being sworn in. Mohamed Zahir was overplaying his hand.

It was also very obvious that the Speaker had performed a handstand in parliament. He was ignorant of the law and had later contradicted himself. Handpicked to give the Barison Nasional the upper hand in Parliament, the old hand in Parliament, has become old, very old indeed.

Convinced that Mohamed Zahir was being high-handed, Karpal refused to reply. It appeared that the Speaker was trying to make it look as though the MP was forcing his hand. Karpal refused to play into his hands and claimed that the Speaker had a ‘hidden motive’.

The PM found the controversy rather handy. He had the ‘hired hand’ in his department. Nazri Abdul Aziz, table his motion that led Parliament into a frolicking on the frivolous, whilst he (the PM) was on a holiday.

To get Parliament to extend its sitting late into the night to debate over whether a MP has misdirected the House by rightly quoting a fact but from a wrong source and whilst MPs sat on their hands in the face of pressing national issues you have got to hand it to the Barisan Nasional!

Martin Jalleh

(17 June 2004)