Malaysian opposition MPs storm out of parliament
Updated
Malaysian opposition MPs walked out of parliament after the lower house speaker rejected their motion for a debate of no confidence in Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi.
Presenter: Girish Sawlani
Speakers: Head of the opposition Keadilan party, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
ISMAIL: I am disappointed but I'm not surprised because I think most of our motion that has been brought forth that has this sort of connotation going against the government has always been turned down. So I'm not quite surprised but we were disappointed because the Speaker is usually quite fair.
SAWLANI: The Speaker said the motion was rejected because of a wrong choice of words. Could you give us more details about that?
ISMAIL: Well in this motion he said that it's actually for discussion this 18(1), and emergency motion, that's what we wanted to have a fair discussion. But he said that because of the title that he would actually think it would be more proper to have a vote. But it's not quite what we wanted, we said ok, we need to have a motion of no confidence because that's what the people on the ground feel. So that's why we mooted this 18(1).
SAWLANI: You led the walkout by the opposition members of parliament and what do you think it would achieve or symbolise for the opposition?
ISMAIL: Well it showed that we are not happy; we are disappointed, in fact we regret what's happening, because the police actually made matters worse by actually cordoning the whole of parliament and put up barbed wire around parliament. And before that they actually got the courts to give a restrictive order on my husband and his supporters from coming five kilometres from the parliament, just because of this my husband mentioned that he would like to be present to listen to the debate, and the police took this course of action. What are they trying to say is that one man is so dangerous that he has to be held away with all the supporters, with all the barbed wire? It does look like a war zone, that's why the no confidence meant more than just against the way the Speaker handled the emergency motion.
SAWLANI: So do you believe UMNO was responsible for the police issuing a court order for your husband to be barred from entering parliament?
ISMAIL: Well I think that they're probably a hand behind it, and the police do take this extra bit of precaution just to make sure that Anwar doesn't appear or seemed to have influence. I do not have the necessary information or whatever that UMNO is behind it, but I think there must be some sort of coordination.
SAWLANI: Do you think this will hurt the prospects of opposition to possibly form government in September?
ISMAIL: Of course they will thwart any attempts, people in power attempt to want to stay in power, so this is of course their way of handling any challenge to that. But that's not to stop us because I think we will try because we are speaking on behalf of the voters and the people.
SAWLANI: What's the next step then for Keadilan and indeed the opposition now that this motion has been rejected?
ISMAIL: Oh it's ok because as I said it's not surprising. We have to go to the people and then we have to actually inform people because I think the press does cover a little bit of that, but the villagers will not have the true picture. So we have to go down and disseminate the information. But really we have the support of the people.
SAWLANI: Your husband was asked questions by police on the sodomy charges. What's the situation now, I understand he refused to be questioned by police on those charges?
ISMAIL: Of course not, that's not right, Anwar here is actually informed the police any time that they want to question him of course we will go voluntarily. But this was the court injunction that was posted on the house when we were not in, we were actually in Penang. So they sent 15 police officers for intimidation and since they couldn't get to us they just posted it. And we've actually sent three letters to the police to ask for the police report given by this young man so that we would know exactly what was happening, what was the report against Anwar. But we have not been given the police report even though they say come and get in, and then the next morning they say oh no, we can't give it. So what is going on?
