Why seek rib-tickling fun only in predictable spots when they can also be found in unexpected places – like Dewan Rakyat.

IF Bintulu Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Tiong Kin Seng intended to grab the headlines, then the Gabungan Parti Sarawak politician got what he wanted.

DAP lawmakers also predictably dived into the brouhaha in the Dewan Rakyat, and naturally, Jelutong DAP RSN Rayer got himself kicked out for refusing to heed Deputy Speaker Datuk Seri Azalina Othman’s call to sit down.

All this over a silly remark – yes, I repeat, a silly remark – made by Tiong, who asked if Health director general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah feared for his life because of the coronavirus.

The Dewan Rakyat descended into a shouting match after Tiong claimed Dr Noor Hisham didn’t go down to the ground in Sabah when Covid-19 cases were at an all-time high in the state.

He asked if Dr Noor was “afraid to die” and went on to say that “the DG just does news every day.”

“If it’s just the news, even the office boy can read. Why didn’t he go down to the ground?” Tiong said during his debate on Budget 2021 in the Dewan Rakyat on Thursday.

It is strange that Tiong had picked on Dr Noor Hisham for having the daily press conference but did not say the same about Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who also does the same. If Tiong had done some homework, he would realise both were acting on instructions from the top.

Civil servants and to some extent, the media, are always easy targets for politicians. Civil servants can’t engage in verbal spats while reporters consign attacks from politicians to occupational hazard.

This writer also wears the badge of honour for criticisms by MPs from both benches. Police reports have also been made and in one case, a low-ranking PAS member continuously sent me death threats.

I had to lodge a police report, and the Special Branch did a superb job in tracing the sender of those threats to a small town in Perak, but I let the matter slide.

Despite his defiance, I chose to forgive the man in his 70s, who was angry that I disagreed to the setting up of an Islamic State in Malaysia. Credit to him, he eventually stopped.

The police had to visit my home to advise my family on the nature of these threats. There were other threats along the way, and in different forms, too.

So, last week, Tiong chose to pick on Dr Noor Hisham. He could have phrased his grouses better, but he preferred to sound like a bully and made dubious accusations.

Basically, he got carried away, like with many politicians who think they are God-sent the moment a microphone is handed to them.

But tipping the scale, it was a captive audience in the Dewan Rakyat. And reporters were there, too, though they were dozing off listening to the mostly mundane speeches while in search of an interesting story.

Well, the media can always count on the likes of Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (Pasir Salak), Datuk Seri Bung Mokhtar Radin (Kinabatangan) and of course, Rayer and some DAP MPs to provide comic relief to the otherwise august house.

Without any disrespect or insinuation to anyone, past or present, I have known of many former MPs who banged on pots and pans to get themselves suspended because they had business matters to attend to, including court cases.

I’ve had the privilege of covering the Dewan Rakyat for a long time, even when some of the present batch of MPs were still in primary school or kindergarten.

As an afterthought, or perhaps he was instructed to, Tiong then issued a statement to clarify that he “did not intend to maliciously target” Dr Noor Hisham, adding that DAP MPs such as Jelutong MP RSN Rayer shouldn’t twist his words for seemingly cheap publicity in the alleged guise of defending civil servants.

“Rather, my words reflect the frustrations of the frontliners and the people for the past several months, ” Tiong claimed in a statement posted on his Facebook page on Thursday night.

Tiong further criticised the federal government for drafting “ambiguous” Covid-19 SOPs that have led to the police issuing RM1,000 fines for perceived infractions, such as over-crowding in the front, even when the vehicle only carries two people, the driver and a passenger.

He’s right, but he should take those questions to Inspector General of Police as well as Ismail Sabri.

I don’t recall Tiong speaking about Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Dr Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali for allegedly violating a 14-day mandatory home quarantine order.

Where was the displayed bravado then, or was it not politically correct to take on a fellow friendly MP, particularly a minister in Parliament?

Tiong also missed an important point – the politicians who campaigned in the recent Sabah state elections broke all the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and it was their indifference that has fed the pandemic.

Dr Noor Hisham responded saying he’s “not afraid to die” and clarified that he and his team had gone to the ground in Sabah to check on the Covid-19 situation.

He defended allegations that he hadn’t visited the state, adding that he had been there at the end of August to check on the management and preparations prior to the Sabah state elections.

He also noted that Deputy Director-General for Public Health Datuk Dr Chong Chee Keong, too, had gone to check on the situation in Sabah just last week, while the Prime Minister’s special adviser on public health Tan Sri Dr Jemilah Mahmood was also in Sabah two weeks ago.

“The issue that we are afraid to die does not arise. As a Muslim, we accept that death can happen anywhere, not just whether we go to the ground or not.

“What is important is for us to do our duty. Our purpose is to break the chain of infection in the country. We can have our differences, but what is important is to break the chain of infection so that we can save the country from an increase of cases and the death rates, ” he said during his daily press briefing on Wednesday.

If Malaysians expect to see quality debates in the Dewan Rakyat, they can forget about it.

Dr Noor Hisham, like many of his counterparts, have not taken a single day off since March, when the pandemic broke.

Those who know him well can tell you that his daily press conference is a directive. If he had his way, he’d rather post a press release on the ministry website.

Echoing the sentiments of an apt social media message that went viral recently, the cinemas may have been shut down following the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO), but the Dewan Rakyat is still open for entertainment, especially of the comedic variety.

Hopefully, some of our MPs will see the light. I take this occasion to wish all readers, and especially our frontliners who celebrate Deepavali, a happy, blessed and safe one. May the festival of lights fill our lives. Happy Deepavali!

I’M not a Donald Trump fan and am ecstatic that he has to vacate the White House. I can’t stand his smirk, bravado and arrogance.

His endless bashing of obstacles in his way or politics, often racist in nature, has always been distasteful to most of us.

So it’s not surprising to the world that he alleges votes were stolen from him.

In the 2016 presidential election, he made the same accusation, claiming the election was “absolutely rigged” by the “dishonest media”…“at many polling places”.

Trump then questioned the legitimacy of the election process in a series of tweets: “Of course, there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day.”

Naturally, he accepted the results wholeheartedly when they were in his favour because in those instances, the system apparently wasn’t rigged.

Now he’s back at it again, accusing Democrats of cheating without proving his claims.

Predictably, many of his supporters have echoed those sentiments because, well, Trump said so. His inflammatory remarks are dangerous and can rally his hardcore base.

But the real point of this piece is, based on what’s played out on CNN and other major news outlets, it’s easy to have thought that Biden would score a landslide victory.

Trump has been made out to be a moron and/or a monster, and that he’s a serial liar, a cheating husband and a president who worked with the Russians, and much more. His limited vocabulary and penchant for exaggerations and exclamations haven’t helped his cause either.

Yet, many Americans voted for him. It was such a slim win for Biden that at the beginning, Democrats had resigned to the fate of him losing.

Although he’s been the most controversial and divisive president in modern US history, Trump has had a remarkably steady approval rating, thanks to his staunch supporters.

With Trump being Trump, we can count on him to be delusional enough to declare himself a winner, with his poor suffering wife and family by his side as he proudly walked to the podium with Hail to the Chief accompanying his grand entrance.

We have many of our own political clowns, but this American Orange Man takes the cake for this incredibly moronic act.

The New York Times reported that Trump enjoyed huge support within his own party, winning 93% of Republican votes.

The report on Nov 4 also said that Trump did somewhat better with Black voters (12%) and Hispanic voters (32%) and of course, he won Florida with its huge Spanish speaking electorate.

Here is Trump, who has supposedly mismanaged the Covid-19 pandemic, messed up the economy, divided races, cheated on his tax returns, treated women badly, and is essentially someone not fit to be a US President.

CNN, as we’re all aware, threw out objectivity a long time ago and campaigned incessantly against Trump.

But the real story of the 2020 US elections is that a scary number of Americans still wanted Trump.

The Democrats also failed to unseat the Republicans in the Senate and the House of Representatives, with the Republicans maintaining their stranglehold.

British newspaper The Guardian rightly reported that “Biden didn’t offer a clear and compelling alternative” and described him as a “weak candidate from the start”.

“Biden, like Hillary Clinton before him, represented the corporate wing of the Democratic party; he loudly defended the private health insurance industry and fracking industry from attacks by the left” and “he didn’t show much interest in courting core constituencies like Latino voters (reportedly, the Biden campaign didn’t consider them part of its “path to victory”), which helps explain the losses in Texas and Florida.”

So the real story isn’t that Biden won but how it was a neck and neck fight all the way. And it wasn’t true at all that Trump was hugely unpopular as the US media wanted us to believe.

Simply put, Trump continues to be a formidable force and, well, he still has the numbers.

And what can we say of the American voters who chose a Republican candidate from North Dakota who died of Covid-19 for the state House of Representatives!

This is the irony – Trump, who was perceived as a dangerous man, never went to war. The nearest was a trade war with China. He even befriended North Korea leader Kim Jong-un and eased tensions.

In contrast, Barack Obama, who vowed to end conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan before he took office in 2008, went to war throughout his eight-year tenure.

He launched airstrikes in at least seven countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan, and incredibly, still won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

Obama endorsed same sex marriages. While it was embraced in Hollywood and the cities, the decision went down badly in the rural Midwest.

Likewise, the protests in the cities and the street battles against the police set alarm bells ringing in many middle-class homes, especially in predominantly white areas.

What’s portrayed in the media, sometimes, doesn’t reflect the values and positions of middle America.

While Trump is barrelling towards a defeat, it’s certain we will still hear from him in various forms, including his Tweets.

As the voting pattern has revealed, Trumpism resonates with many Americans.

A substantial portion of the world may want US leadership, but its involvement in numerous countries has led to many American casualties and a heavy toll. The reality is that Americans don’t want their presidents to be busybodies in the name of promoting democracy when they have enough problems at home. They don’t need their loved ones to come home in body bags from war zones in countries they can’t even locate on the world map.

As is common knowledge now, there were no weapons of mass destruction as claimed by the US, and after Saddam Hussein’s downfall, Iraq has turned out for the worse, and not better.

American philosopher Jason Brennan perfectly encapsulated in a nutshell how democracy works.

“Most voters are ignorant or misinformed because the costs to them of acquiring political information greatly exceed the potential benefits.

“They can afford to indulge silly, false, delusional beliefs – precisely because such beliefs cost them nothing. After all, the chances that any individual vote will decide the election is vanishingly small.

“As a result, individual voters tend to vote expressively, to show their commitment to their worldview and team. Voting is more like doing the wave at a sports game than it is like choosing policy.

“Just why voters know so little is well-understood. It’s not that people are stupid. Rather, it’s that democracy creates bad incentives.”

IF anyone expects our politicians to stop plotting and instead wholeheartedly heed the advice of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, then they’re setting themselves up for disappointment.

All the pledges by our political party leaders seem to be just lip service, following our King’s request last week.

Members of Parliament have submitted a shocking number of motions to undermine Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, detailed Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun.

“We have received more than 16 no-confidence motions from the MPs and we have listed them in the Order Paper, ” he said, adding that he was scrutinising each for inclusion into Parliament’s agenda when the Lower House convenes from Nov 2.

A news portal, however, reported that a record 25 Opposition MPs have filed motions of no confidence in Muhyiddin, as listed in the Order Paper. One motion is from DAP Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng, and another from Tawau MP Christina Liew, Sabah’s PKR chief.

Similar motions have come from all 11 MPs from Amanah, seven from Warisan and five from Pejuang. There are also two motions of confidence submitted by Pasir Puteh MP Nik Muhammad Zawawi Salleh from PAS, and Arau MP Shahidan Kassim from Barisan Nasional.

The no faith motions will not crop up because government businesses will take precedence, but the point is, no one has asked for the motions to be withdrawn.

Rules 15 (1) and (2) of the Standing Orders state that government affairs shall have precedence over other matters and arranged in accordance with government considerations.

So while the party leaders were pledging loyalty to the King, their underlying ploys were to continue with their plans, and we can only deduce that their party bosses have given them tacit approvals. Or are we supposed to naively believe that their party MPs are free to do what they want at the Dewan Rakyat without any control by their party whips?

Basically, no one – including our King – should trust our politicians’ words.

These guys can draft letters to the King and later claim they didn’t sign anything, as reported by some media.

Last Sunday, His Majesty said in a statement issued by the Istana Negara, that he thought there was no need to declare a state of Emergency in just some parts or the entire country. Comptroller of the Royal Household Datuk Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin said the King feels the government has efficiently handled the Covid-19 pandemic, which has entered the third wave in several parts of the country.

“After deliberating and consulting with the Malay Rulers, as well as taking into consideration the situation beleaguering the country, Al-Sultan Abdullah is of the view that the present government has managed to deal with the pandemic effectively.

“Al-Sultan Abdullah is also of the view that at the moment, there is no need for His Majesty to make an emergency proclamation nationwide or for any part of the country, ” read the statement.

Next came the reminder, which one may call a caveat, where Ahmad Fadil said the King reiterated his message for politicians to stop all forms of politicking and disrupting the country’s administration.

Al-Sultan Abdullah, he said, was also under the impression that there was no need for members of Parliament to continue with irresponsible actions that could undermine the stability of the current government.

In a nutshell – don’t reject the Budget, and there’s no need to table a vote of no confidence in the PM.

On Wednesday, the King issued another statement, which urged all MPs to give “solid support” to the 2021 budget for the sake of the people’s well-being and the country’s economic recovery from the pandemic.

The King also conveyed his “full confidence” in the PM’s ability to lead the country during this period when Malaysia is being tested by “various crises”.

In a statement issued by the palace on Oct 28, Ahmad Fadil said the King has stressed that the 2021 national budget, to be tabled in Parliament on Nov 6, is “very important” for the government and authorities, especially frontliners, to continue implementing policies to overcome the unending threat the pandemic poses.

“Al-Sultan Abdullah has urged MPs to respect the advice of His Majesty for them to stop all political quarrels and instead, focus on the well-being of the people and the country so that the 2021 national budget will be passed without disruptions, ” the statement said.

The statement from the palace issued on Wednesday was certainly worded more strongly than the one from Sunday evening, following the meeting of the King and the Rulers.

The rejection of the proposal to proclaim a state of emergency to fight Covid-19 and the economic downturn was viewed by some political opponents as a rejection of the PM.

It didn’t help that there was a second statement on the same day, which contributed to more interpretations, although it could just be a case of misinterpreting a straightforward statement.

The second statement said the King and the other eight Rulers considered implications of an emergency in context of the country’s image, views of other countries, investor confidence, prosperity of the country, people’s livelihood and their welfare.

“The King and the eight Rulers felt it is important to respect the check-and-balance mechanism between the various branches of government, and the role of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, which is to balance various demands to ensure justice and to check any abuse of power, ” said the Keeper of the Rulers’ Seal.

The phrase “check any abuse of power” immediately set alarm bells ringing as analysts tried to read between the lines.

Others said analysts shouldn’t dissect what was simply an additional statement by the eight Rulers to express appreciation to Yang di-Pertuan Agong for consulting them before deciding to declare an Emergency, or otherwise.

But in a charged atmosphere, it would have been sufficient for the palace to simply stick to one statement.

And by 11pm, word got out that the PM wanted to quit. At that point, many ministers were already at his house.

The next day, the Umno supreme council ended speculation by expressing its support for the PM and the Perikatan Nasional government. It also said it wanted better cooperation based on “respect” and “political consensus” – which simply means it wants more powerful positions and a stronger voice in the government.

Umno also said it would not work with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the DAP – and that as good as killed off any form of government by Anwar, since he would need to include the DAP. That means it would now be impossible for Anwar to work out a new government to topple Muhyiddin.

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak also found out that Umno would never work with Anwar and by extension, the DAP. His Facebook was bombarded with angry comments. It was hardly news to anyone who understands Umno. Unsurprisingly, many found Najib’s proposal reeking of a desperate attempt to save himself.

So, what comes next?

Most likely, the Budget will get passed, but the difference this time is, the government can no longer take it for granted that it will be a done deal. The government will not be able to ignore the demands from the MPs, including those in the government, and with the PM’s razor thin majority, immediate changes may have to be made, which would need inclusion in the supplementary budget.

A Cabinet reshuffle is imminent as Umno has made it loud and clear that it wants the deputy prime minister post. The names of at least four Umno leaders have been thrown in the hat. The Dewan Rakyat meeting will end in December and that has most likely – given the strong advice of the King – won the PM a reprieve of six months, at least.

At the same time, the Opposition is trying to push for a Confidence and Supply Agreement to ensure political stability, but the conditions include appointments to select committees and proper allocations for their MPs’ constituencies. Some Opposition MPs have also said there should be no snap elections.

It remains to be seen whether the government would want to accede to such demands.

The Dewan Rakyat will meet again in May and by then, it won’t be surprising if a general election needs to be called. For Sarawak, June is the deadline, and we all pray Covid-19 infections will at least be curtailed by then. And if we desperately need to call for polls, let’s find new ways of campaigning to ensure the rakyat’s safety.