12th Malaysian Parliament - Events - First Sitting

First Sitting

The election of the Deputy Speakers sparked a minor controversy, as Lim Kit Siang of the opposition Democratic Action Party nominated Tan Seng Giaw for one of the two posts. The election of the Speaker had been unanimous, as no other candidates were nominated. Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar received 157 votes, while Ronald Kiandee obtained 140 votes. Tan came in third with 81 votes.

After the MPs were sworn in on the first day of the first session of the Dewan Rakyat, all except Opposition Leader Wan Azizah received personal invitations for them and their spouses to attend the official opening of Parliament by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Mizan Zainal Abidin the next day. Wan Azizah demanded an explanation as to why she only received a letter, and why her husband Anwar Ibrahim, a controversial former Deputy Prime Minister and now the de facto leader of Pakatan Rakyat, was not officially invited to attend the ceremony. They later received an official invitation; Anwar's attendance the following day was the first time he had been in the Houses of Parliament since his sacking in 1998.

The first full day Parliament sat was fraught with controversy. Karpal Singh of the DAP delayed proceedings by protesting that several MPs had not been validly sworn in because they had not raised their right hands, a claim the Speaker rejected. Karpal subsequently exchanged heated words with Bung Mokhtar Radin, calling him "big foot", with Bung retorting that he was a "big monkey". During question time, the Speaker gave one question for the Prime Minister to Razali Ibrahim and refused to permit supplementary follow-up questions, a decision Lim Kit Siang denounced as "making a mockery" of the House, branding it as part of "a conspiracy to silent the opposition MPs". After the Prime Minister personally intervened, the Speaker permitted Abdul Hadi Awang of PAS to ask one follow-up question. Azmin Ali of PKR also protested the Speaker's allocation of questions, arguing that as Leader of the Opposition, Wan Azizah had the right to first ask the Prime Minister a question, and that BN backbenchers received a disproportionate number of questions.

The controversial debate led Information Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek to suggest that the government would review live broadcasts of the first 30 minutes of question time because "it was misused to seek cheap publicity and raise trivial matters". He later said that he would propose to the Cabinet that plans to broadcast future question times be shelved. In response, Deputy Speaker Wan Junaidi said it was too early to make a firm decision about the future of live broadcasts: "I feel the government should determine if this is a first-day phenomenon or if it will continue." Prime Minister Abdullah also called for the cancellation of the live broadcasts, but the Cabinet decided to continue them for the time being.

On 28 May, controversy arose in the Dewan Rakyat after Pakatan Rakyat MPs protested that the outcome of a voice vote on part of the Supplementary Supply Bill 2008 (2007) had been unclear. Some observers suggested that the number of Pakatan Rakyat MPs in the chamber at the time had actually exceeded the number of Barisan Nasional MPs, indicating that the motion could actually have failed. After fifteen of the PR MPs requested a recorded vote, the Deputy Speaker announced a division on the question of the motion, a first in living memory. Many BN MPs were forced to rush to the chamber to vote, including the Prime Minister; the motion ultimately passed, 92 in favour and 60 against. Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein later criticised the request for a division, saying that "all the fuss from them (opposition MPs) is just to disturb and disrupt the proceedings". PKR whip Azmin Ali however called the vote a moral victory for the opposition, saying "This is the first I have seen the prime minister running into the House."

As the first sitting of the Dewan Rakyat neared its close at the end of May, The Malaysian Insider pronounced that it was "a different House for all who enter," citing how now Cabinet members' lives revolved around Parliamentary sessions, with Ministers being forced to attend to answer questions and participate in votes.