Parliament Or Animal Farm?

An argument over a factual error in a question resulted in two Members of Parliament (MPs) calling each other "animal" in the Dewan Rakyat Wednesday.

The verbal exchange between Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) and Karpal Singh (DAP-Bukit Gelugor) culminated in Karpal Singh saying that Bung Moktar was "an insane person and animal unqualified to be in the house". Bung Moktar responded by saying Karpal Singh was "a crawling beast" and "a father of animals".

Both men ended their dispute after a reprimand by Speaker Tan Sri Ramli Ngah Talib who decided to move on to the next question. The quarrel began after Datuk Ronald Kiandee (BN-Beluran) asked about the success of the government's measures against drug trafficking and referred to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1989 when it should have been Dangerous Drugs Act 1988. Deputy Minister of Internal Security Datuk Mohd Johari Baharum, in his reply, correctly referred to the Dangerous Drugs Act 1988 but Karpal Singh insisted that the Dangerous Drugs Act 1989 did not exist and wanted Ronald to be referred to the Rights and Privileges Committee for "misleading" the house.

At this juncture, Bung Moktar intervened to say that an MP could not disrupt the question-and-answer session unless there was a matter of importance connected to the question. The verbal exchange continued for some time with other MPs joining in through expression of support or advice, including Chong Eng (DAP-Bukit Mertajam), M. Kulasegaran (DAP-Ipoh Barat) and Datuk Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar (BN-Santubong).

In his reply, meanwhile, Mohd Johari said that between June 10, 1988 and last month the value of assets confiscated from drug traffickers exceeded RM274 million, of which RM34 million had been deposited into the government's consolidated fund to finance its administrative operations.

****As for the main question, please answer it in your comments.