IT is said when the judges met to consider their appropriate and humble address to Queen Victoria of England on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee in 1887, there was no objection raised to the insertion of the words – conscious as we are of our shortcomings.
But Lord Justice (Baron Charles Christopher) Bowen suggested, in his gentlest and humblest tone, that the phrase should run conscious as we are of one another’s shortcomings.
Indeed, we are not to confess the faults of our neighbours but rather our own to one another.
English entertainment megastar Sir Elton John may sing “sorry seems to be the hardest word: but it is a mark of real grace in the heart when one is not ashamed to admit one’s own mistakes and confess/was wrong regardless of whether others were at fault.
Over the past months, we had heard and read in newspapers, social media and news portal how the opposition lawmakers shouted at the top of their lungs over perceived (or otherwise) flaws in the Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota) which, among others, allows the authorities to detain suspected terrorists without trial for up to two years.
These opposition legislators claimed the provisions under the Act could be abused to silence political opponents – hence mirroring the repealed draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) 1960 – and that the government has other existing laws to deal with terrorism that permits long detention to facilitate investigation.
The government tabled the motion on Pota for debate in the Dewan Rakyat and the Act was subsequently passed by 79 to 60 votes – without any amendments.
The numbers speak for themselves. Only 60 MPs from the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) were present to vote against the Act. While full attendance by PR MPs might not be enough to block the passage of Pota as the Barisan Nasional (BN) still holds the majority in the Lower House, it could also be taken as a different scenario if all the 86 opposition MPs were present when the motion was tabled as they would have outnumbered the 79 BN MPs in attendance for the crucial vote during that particular parliamentary session.
What was glaringly conspicuous was that a significant 31 per cent of PR MPs were missing – which begs the question as to how committed are the opposition MPs in walking the talk against what they claimed to be an oppressive law?
Some of these MPs vigorously defended their absenteeism but at the same time also resorted to finding faults in others, and honestly, their unrepentant behaviour did them no favours other than reflecting very badly on themselves. Are these lawmakers voted into Parliament by you?
“I had a planned engagement in Kedah. There was no instruction for us to be present. I did not know there would be bloc voting,” PAS chief whip Datuk Mahfuz Omar rationalised – or attempted to.
“When tabling a law like this, they should give more time as the Act is not a small issue. Don’t make it normal practice to drag proceedings until 2 am,” PAS Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad chimed in sheepishly.
Getting very institutionalised and acting like how the government usually does, PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli asked voters, upset with the opposition MPs for being absent during the Pota vote, to write in and voice their discontent, hoping this would send a strong reminder to the MPs concerned not “to repeat same mistake the next time.”
Notably from the BN side, there was also absenteeism as high as 44 per cent. With the only 79 MPs attending, it means 55 of them were absent.
It is so much easier to give an excuse than to endeavour to be righteous and responsible. Those MPs who find fault in others obviously do not know that destruction of reputation is easier than construction of character and confidence.
Just as it was much easier to be in dreamland than to debate on a bill in Parliament during the wee hours, so was it also much easier for the absent MPs to audaciously let other MPs work through the night on such an important bill. If Kuala Terengganu MP Raja Kamarul Baharin Shah Raja Ahmad’s utterance – the late hours and long hours will affect his life – were credible, then he was effectively implying that the MPs who deliberated and debated on the bill through the night do not have a life.
The episode could have passed quietly but for the journalists who pointed out PR’s big embarrassment in letting its supporters down.
Yes, the journalists were there to report the passage of Pota. The national news agency Bernama filed their story and I saw on my blackberry at 2.57am with the headline: Dewan Rakyat passes Pota after debating for more than 12 hours.
The bill was passed at 2.25 am. After that, the 79 BN and 60 PR MPs would have left Parliament and headed straight home but the journalists went on to file their reports. The journalists had not failed their “bosses” – and yes, who are their “bosses” but the readers.
I have yet to come across a single journalist complaining about the wee hours the press had to work through to get the news out. My salute to our fellow journalists.
Similarly, a salute to the MPs who had done their best by turning up to debate the bill in Parliament.
Could the action of those Pakatan MPs who went massively MIA (missing in action) at the most critical hour make the so-called Alternative Front a credible Opposition Pact – as postulated by Uimas senior lecturer Dr Jeniri Amir?
Will Pakatan and BN supporters give these missing MPs another chance?
As the sayings goes, so long as a mule is kicking, it makes no progress.
Postscript:
The Sedition Act (Amendment) Bill was passed at 2.30am on Friday (April 10) with an improved attendance 109 for and 79 against. After the record longest parliament sitting, the parliamentarians congratulated themselves and gave themselves a three-fold pay rise. With that a MP will soon be getting salary and allowance of RM16,000 and the federal government expects to incur an additional expenditure of almost RM32 Million a year.