Takiyuddin calls for a block vote to stall government business on Order Paper for Parliament today 2023

Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan, chief whip of the opposition, has called for a block vote after Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah and Sarawak Affairs and Special Duties) Datuk Wilson Ugak Kumbong called for a motion to complete the government’s business listed on today’s Order Paper.

Today’s Order Paper comprises the introduction of the Sustainable Energy Development Authority (Amendment) Bill 2023 and the Renewable Energy (Amendment) Bill 2023 for their second readings.

In his motion, Ugak Kumbong proposed that the current session of Parliament not be adjourned until the second and third readings of both bills have been presented today.

Takiyuddin requests a block vote to delay government business on Parliament’s Order Paper today.

The demand for a bloc vote was made after members of the Opposition caucus questioned why the Bills were hurried in the first week of the current legislative session.

After the Deputy Speaker Datuk Ramli Mohd Nor approved the motion for the bloc vote, Perikatan legislators urged him to close the door in an effort to gain numerical advantage and win the vote.

Ramli then consented to the convention proposed by PN Pendang MP Datuk Awang Hashim and other Opposition lawmakers to secure the House’s door.

The Dewan Rakyat was then thrown into disarray when opposition legislators observed government lawmakers entering the chamber after the door had been closed.

“I saw Kepong and Sungai Buloh just enter, I need you to kick them out,” Mohd Syahir Che Sulaiman, PN’s Bachok MP, said to Ramli, referring to Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng and Sungai Buloh MP Ramanan Ramakrishnan.

The shouting match persisted for more than fifteen minutes before Ramli called the House Speaker to inform him of the majority vote’s outcome.

83 MPs voted in favor of proceeding with the government’s business on the Order Paper, 52 opposed, 86 were absent, and one (Ramli) did not vote because he was the Deputy Speaker on duty.

Earlier in Parliament, immediately following the Minister’s Question Time, Takiyuddin brought up Standing Orders 15 (1) and 48, which govern the Order Paper and Bills, respectively.

“Today is the fourth day of the session, and there are seven more days remaining. I’d like to know if the government has no additional Bills for the remaining seven days.

“Does it not matter that the government sprung an amendment to the Insolvency Act on the 23rd (May 23) without giving us time to consider it?

“I request that this be recorded, and if there are additional Bills for the remaining seven days, when will they be introduced?” Takiyuddin said.

He had asked the ruling bloc’s MPs to address his queries while also asking if they were working on the film Anwar: The Untold Story, which has become an unsold story.

Takiyuddin stated, “This is important to the rakyat, and I request clarification.”

The Deputy Speaker stated, however, that he had made the decision for the proceeding to continue according to the Order Paper.