The Member of Parliament (MP) for Iskandar Puteri, Lim Kit Siang has called out the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government for abruptly suspending Parliament in the midst of a national catastrophe as Malaysia is currently heading towards more than 1,500,000 cumulative Covid-19 cases and over 15,000 casualties from the pandemic.

In a statement today, Lim categorised the Parliament lockdown by PN as a great national disservice. He stressed,

“Parliament should be meeting to draft a new policy and strategy to avert these calamitous figures on August 31,”

“Instead, MPs were blocked from Parliament and the Parliament special meeting truncated, after being distracted from focusing on the Covid-19 pandemic with a major constitutional crisis.”

Furthermore, the DAP veteran also called upon the Parliamentary Privileged Committee to urgently meet to deal with the obstruction of MPs from reaching Parliament and carrying out their parliamentary duties yesterday. This is a serious offence under Section 9(e) of the House of Parliament (Privileges and Powers) Act 1952 which prescribes the power for Parliament to punish anyone who obstruct Mps from entering the House with contempt of Parliament.

Yesterday, a police blockade was erected directly in front of Parliament as well as several roadblocks at roads leading up to the building. A total of 107 Opposition MPs were denied entry into Parliament in a shameful act that has been making headlines all over the world.

Lim then questioned as to when the police will begin to initiate investigations on the illegal obstruction as police reports have already been lodged. He further clarified that obsucting MPs from entering Parliament is also a criminal offence under Section 124 of the Penal Code.

The Iskandar Puteri MP thus urges for the reconvening of Parliament at the earliest possible date to esnure that our 64th National Day on this 31 August would not be a the most depressing Hari Merdeka celebration in the history of our country. Lim asserted,

“Parliament should reconvene at the earliest possible date to ensure that by the 64th National Day on August 31, we do not have a cumulative total of over 1.5 million Covid-19 cases and over 15,000 Covid-19 deaths.”

PN must not subject Malaysians across the nation with a great national disservice by suspending Parliament when accountability and transparency is needed most. With half-a-million Covid-19 cases and 6,000 casualties projected in the country within this month alone, this PN Federal Government seems to only be interested on their own political survival instead of the plight of the rakyat. – The Rocket.