Ministers, MPs get a rapping from Speaker

MPs were given a lesson in parliamentary conventions today, as the Speaker of the House shot down the opposition's attempt to derail the supplementary supply bill of the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry.

In his ruling on objections raised over the absence of extra spending by the ministry in the bill, Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia said ministries are not required to include development spending under the supplementary supply bill.

Pandikar (right) also reprimanded the ministers, and told them to make sure that they, or at least senior ministry officers, were present in the House until any bill related to their portfolios was settled so they could clarify any discrepancy or misunderstanding that might arise.

He explained that while it is constitutionally mandatory to include extra spending under management expenditure in a bill, ministries only need to file a separate motion for additional money spent on development.

He pointed out that this had been a House convention for many years, including the past three years since 2008 when the opposition won a sizeable number of seats.

Pandikar announced his ruling after a 15-minute recess to go through objections raised by Azan Ismail (PKR-Indera Mahkota) and Yusmadi Yusoff (PKR-Balik Pulau), who said it was unconstitutional for Parliament to pass the science ministry's supplementary supply bill when they were debating expenditure that was not included in the bill.

Recess was called after opposition MPs spent more than 30 minutes repeating their objections based on this procedural technicality.

Opposition members then spent another 40 minutes expressing their dissatisfaction with the speaker's answer, with Azan repeatedly stressing that the approval sought for RM133 million in extra spending by the ministry was not covered in the RM13 billion total in extra expenditure under the bill.

Bill passed amidst the ruckus

Tian Chua (PKR-Batu) chimed in, saying that if Pandikar's interpretation stood, then ministers were free to simply raise any sum of additional expenditure for approval by Parliament without first informing the MPs.

Yusmadi insisted that despite the speaker's ruling, there was still the possibility of the House being mistaken in upholding such a convention and urged Pandikar to form an expert committee to study the validity of the practice.

Pandikar agreed to take Yusmadi's suggestion under consideration, but still failed to placate the opposition MPs who ended up getting into shouting matches with backbenchers after they were accused of wasting time.

Among the most vocal were Yusmadi and Lilah Yasin (BN-Jempol), with Yusmadi (right) seen shaking his microphone roughly in anger over something the former had shouted over the din.

Yusmadi later told reporters in the Parliament lobby that the reason he was angry was because Lilah had shown him his fist while arguing, and said he would seek a formal apology from the Jempol MP.

Back in the House, a clearly exasperated Pandikar decided to ignore the warring MPs and calls from the opposition for a block vote on the issue, moving Parliament to pass the bill amidst the on-going ruckus.

After the situation calmed down, Pandikar again issued a reprimand - this time to MPs on both sides of the divide.

"I will give a copy of the CCTV footage to all Mps when we leave. I will let you all see your own faces and decide for yourselves, are these the faces of leadership?" he said as his parting shot.