Behave yourself, our Monyet Deputy Minister!

[For those who wish to follow what really happened in the House on that day, you can follow this link.]

It was a pleasant morning in the Parliament.

And we have a group of European Union MPs paying their visit to the Parliament.

It was question time and M. Kayveas, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister Department was answering a question from Tan Sri Law Hieng Ding [Sarikei] on the number of backlog civil and criminal cases and actions taken to tackle it, and whether the government will set up different classes of courts as a solution.

DAP MP for Batu Gajah, Fong Po Kuan stood up to ask a supplementary question on the how long is the longest backlog civil or criminal cases in the court. It was a simple question but M. Kayveas went around the world without giving any answer to such a simple and direct question.

This had cuased impatience from DAP MPs and they wanted the Deputy Minister to directly answer their question without wasting the time of the house. It was at this moment when M. Kayveas shooted the word "Monyet [Monkey]" and he described DAP MPs as Monyet when DAP MPs pushed him to answer the question directly.

Kayveas even called as satu monyet di hadapan [One monkey in front - he was referring Lim Kit Siang] dan satu monyet di belakang [and another one behind - he was referring Fong Po Kuan].

Don't forget, the EU MPs were all sitting behind watching the whole proceeding of the house this morning. I wondered what will they think about Malaysian Parliament, or to put it more precise, what will they think of the standard of debate potrayed by our Deputy Minister.

So, the quarrel continued. DAP MPs asked Kayveas to withdraw the word "Monyet", else they will refer him to the Committee of Privilege. The Speaker agreed and advised Kayveas not to use such word in the House and it is better to withdraw it.

Kayveas replied that he was not describing DAP MPs as monyet, but merely said that DAP MPs macam Monyet (are like monkeys). DAP MPs were not satistified with his reply and argued. Kayveas then refused to withdraw the word.

Po Kuan then stood up with Peraturan Mesyuarat [Point of Order] to refer M. Kayveas to the Committee of Privilege for yelling DAP MPs as Monyet [Monkeys]. Parliament-jester, MP for Jerai, Badruddin also referred Po Kuan to Privilege Committee for not respecting the Speaker, as he said the Speaker knew what should be done.

The Speaker then managed to calm the House and again requested M. Kayveas to withdraw the word Monyet. He said he was willing to withdraw the word monyet if DAP MP stopped behaving like monyet.

So, Kayveas lost the battle! But he had damaged the image of the Parliament in front of not any commoners, but MPs from the European Union!

The morning in the Parliament today is not longer pleasant!