KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 – Two DAP members of Parliament, Lim Guan Eng (DAP-Bagan) and Teo Kok Seong (DAP-Rasah) were ordered out of the Dewan Rakyat sitting Wednesday night for violating Standing Orders. Dewan Rakyat Deputy Speaker Datuk Ismail Mohamed Said ordered both of them out of the dewan under Standing Order 44 in which Lim failed to comply with the repeated orders of the Dewan Speaker to sit down while Teo for making a recording in the House.
Both of them however can return to the Dewan’s sitting on Thursday. Earlier, the Dewan Rakyat proceedings had erupted in a commotion for more than an hour when arguments broke out between members comprising mostly opposition members over the word ‘bohong’ (lie).
The ruckus occurred when Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan was winding up debate on the motion of thanks for the royal address by for his ministry. When Abdul Rahman began his winding up, Lim stood up to cite a standing order to ask Abdul Rahman to withdraw an unparliamentary word (bohong) which was directed at him earlier.
At the Dewan Rakyat sitting on March 16, Abdul Rahman was reported to have alleged that Lim as Penang Chief Minister had lied on the issue of affordable house prices in Penang. Abdul Rahman said the federal government had never set the price of affordable houses at RM400,000 per unit as touted by Lim.
Lim had made the allegation via a video uploaded on the Internet several days earlier saying the Penang state government set the price of affordable houses in the state according to a federal government order. According to Standing Order 36(4) of the Dewan Rakyat, it was out of order for a member of the House to use unparliamentary words or sexist remarks.
In explaining the matter, Abdul Rahman said the word ‘lie’ was aimed at the fact presented by Lim and not at him. After hearing the explanation by Abdul Rahman, Ismail later ruled that the word ‘lie’ was not directed at Lim but a fact on affordable house prices. However, Lim was unhappy with Ismail’s decision and demanded Abdul Rahman withdraw the word which he alleged was directed at him.
The situation dragged on for more than an hour with several other opposition members joining in to demand Abdul Rahman withdraw the word until Lim and Teo were ordered out of the dewan and a large number of the DAP members also walked out. In continuing his winding up, Abdul Rahman said Lim’s action was expected and alleged it was his strategy to get out of the dewan.
“That is why I appealed to the speaker not to order the member for Bagan out as I will be addressing several issues on the Taman Manggis issue yesterday. But he is using an old tactic to be ordered out of the dewan and later outside the dewan he would hold a media conference and cry for sympathy,” he said.
