The Parliament Lobby Week 12th to 15th May

Our MPs earned their money last week as the sessions went into overtime, finishing at 12am on Tuesday and 9.30 pm on Wednesday. The intention is to give all MPs a chance to give a motion of thanks to the King’s Speech.

Notable speeches included YB Rembau’s 30 minutes, "no intervention allowed" speech which made headlines in all printed and printable news reports. Although the substantive section which included suggestions to reduce corruption by employing cutting edge technology, press freedom, revitalizing the agriculture sector, the newsmakers and opinion makers narrowed down on the “Projek Khinzir Rakyat” branding that riled the opposition to no end. He has included the full speech in his website.

The students (quite a number of them) watched in amazement as the Opposition members went into a frenzy, raising at least 10 point of orders in their bid to stop the Deputy Youth Head from finishing his speech.

Another Pemuda UMNO stalwart, Dato Abdul Rahman Dahlan also made the headline for his elaboration on the “encouragement” given by certain parties for him to switch party. See his speech here.

On the other hand, Jelutong MP, Jeff Ooi decided not to speak because of the constraint of time given.

I was in the public gallery watching the proceedings on Monday when me and another friend were asked to leave as a Perak contingent that had requested for a place in the gallery in writing came to Parliament. As I walked out of the gallery I passed some DAP heavyweights including Lim Guan Eng (he is there almost everyday, with his chief of staff the MP for Jelutong)

Later in the lobby, I found out that the contingent were non other than the Perak assemblymen headed by the Menteri Besar. Reporters surrounded them at their press conference anticipating a comment given to the Karpal – Sultan Perak incident but the MB spoke on the purpose of the visit. (He mentioned they rode the bus in at least 5 different occasions, must have been rehearsed that in the 2 hour bus journey). Good to see them enjoying the lawatan sambil belajar trip to KL.

Overall, the buzz in the Parliament has not yet subsided with cameramen greeting you at the main lobby staircase. It will probably be less exciting come Tuesday with Minsiter’s answers, but I expect parking to remain next to impossible and the canteen breakfast consisting of crumbs by 10.45 am due to high demand. Not surprising with all the head of states out in full force.