It was a "technical" mix-up. This was the reason Parliament Speaker Mohamed Zahir Ismail gave when he notified members of Parliament and other guests about the postponement of the originally scheduled farewell dinner to be hosted by Parliament for Dr Mahathir Mohamad on December 6.

Malaysiakini understands that "technical" hiccup was a result of mis-communication between staff in Parliament and the prime minister's office which resulted in Abdullah Ahmad Badawi being scheduled for another function instead.

By the time they discovered the mix-up, it was too late for Pak Lah to change his schedule.

On Dec 17, Mohamed Zahir sent out the second invitation to MPs and informed them that the dinner has now been scheduled for Jan 13 at the Palace of the Golden Horses Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

According to several MPs, the speaker also apologised in the letter for the cancellation of the Dec 6 function and the inconvenience caused.

Faxed on Dec 31

However, one week after the invitation, MPs were again told that the dinner would be postponed in a two-paragraph letter dated Dec 24.

The letter was only faxed to MPs on Dec 31.

In the letter, the speaker said the postponement was because Mahathir "has another important function which he has to attend". The letter said a new date would be fixed later.

"I feel sad because the function has been postponed a second time and I apologise for any inconvenience caused," Mohamed Zahir said.

One MP told malaysiakini that he was frustrated with the postponements since he was only informed after he had booked his flights.

He said that many MPs were unaware about the first postponement and had actually turned up for the December 6 dinner at Parliament House that evening.