Opposition Steals Spotlight

All for the wrong reasons.

Yesterday was supposed to be the day where the Parliament vote on the Peaceful Assembly Bill, however, what happened was far from peaceful.

Here's a recap of what happened:

- The Bar Council, speaking for all legal practitioners, or so they say, marched from the Titiwangsa Lake around noon to submit to the Parliament an alternative bill. They had their reasons to do so. They were consulted regarding the Bill before its tabling but what was tabled was different from what they were presented with. That's according to them.

- Six new amendments were tabled yesterday. Most of it were regarding time, or specifically the cutting short of time needed for informing the police about any peaceful assembly.

The most shocking thing that happened was the walking out of all the opposition members during Dato Seri Mohd Nazri's speech. Yes. They walked out of Parliament before the voting session began. Freedom speech and right to be heard, thrown out of the window. How grossly indecent is that? Aren't they getting MP allowance from our money? Okay, mum and dad's money, but still.

Mind you, this is purely objective. Lets see the implication of what happened.

- When people look at the Hansard 50 years from now, they will see a full support of the Peaceful Assembly Bill because the opposition didn't vote. Aren't you just a little angry of the characters of people in Parliament? Ironic, isn't it, that we are pushing for a good governance concerning assemblies but the opposition has shown that they are not even interested in any form of assembly. I mean, that's the highest decision-making mechanism in the country. If they walk out of that, who knows what other things they might walk out of.

- They could have walked out after the voting. Real MPs would stand their ground even when odds are against them. Not walk out like children when they didn't get the candy in the flavour they wanted. It would be better for the headlines if they had done so. "MPs stayed to protest Peaceful Assembly Bill after long day of Parliament"

That's allowed, right? want to show you really care for the people, do overtime.

So, will it be okay if the opposition wins the next election and the opposition then walks out in the middle of a Bill voting? Sure, if we judge based on what happened today, of course it would be fine. I'm just going to walk out of Criminal class when I don't agree with the lecturer's style of teaching.

Political affinities aside, we voted so that ordinary people would have some form of representation in Parliament. That's the whole idea. It would be a scary place to live in when the people we voted for just walks out of everything.