Just Passing Through The "Buntut" In Parliament

'Buntut' remark causes Parliament to descend into chaos - malaysiakini report

From The Politics Blog

Comments and additions by Sarawak Headhunter as usual in red.

I found this particularly humorous (Malaysiakini's report can be found here):

A heated exchange erupted in the House today when a deputy minister accused an opposition MP of making his debut entry into Parliament by (the) buntut (backside) (of) Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.

This is exactly what he meant.

The Sun2Surf report by Giam Say Khoon, Tues 21.10.2008 makes it very clear exactly what he said: "...When Deputy Speaker Datuk Dr Wan Junaidi Jaafar tried to explain that Lajim was referring to Anwar when he was the Finance Minister and advised the duo to abide by Article 36(6) of the Standing Orders that no MP shall launch personal attacks against another, Lajim worsened the situation by shouting: "Masuk dari buntut (Enter via the buttocks)."

However, Deputy Transport Minister Lajim Ukin later explained that he meant 'following behind' and not anything else.

How do we interpret "masuk dari buntut" as "following behind"? Is this a BN Sabahan thing or what - saying and doing something and later denying that it meant what it actually did? In the tradition of Bung "Hole" Mokhtar obviously. Dare the Sarawak Headhunter suggest that he was talking through his "buntut"? Why not? That seems to be how most BN MPs, including Ministers and Deputy Ministers, speak.

Compare this to the neutered report in the New Shit Times (NST) today 22.10.2008, which stated that "Lajim then told Gobalakrishnan that he was still a new MP who was tagging behind the buttocks of others."

How can we trust anything the NST has to say if this the way they report things?

The shouting match started when Sirat Abu (BN-Bukit Katil) accused Lajim of 'trying to lie' to the House by claiming that the Batu Berendam Airport was not competitive enough.

Sirat said the government should upgrade the runways at the airport costing RM40 million in order to accommodate six flights from local budget airlines AirAsia that has agreed to do so once the runways are upgraded.

Deputy Speaker Wan Junaidi Wan Salleh the interjected, saying that Sirat "should not use rude words" such as bohong (lie) in the House.

"I retract what I have said...but this is the BN government, a strong and professional government. If this government cannot do it, do we wait until Pakatan (takes over power) and let them do it?" said Sirat drawing thumps on the desks from both opposition and government MPs.

Lajim however explained that the government would look into it since the upgrading cost only RM40 million.

"Don't mention about Pakatan (taking over), the government is capable enough to handle this as we have constructed airports worth billions of ringgit.

"In Kota Kinabalu, we built a RM1.5 billion..." said Lajim, who was unable to finish his sentence after being interrupted by N Gobalakrishnan (PKR-Padang Serai).

Gobalakrishan: "Billions of ringgit but the projects have not been done even (to the) halfway (point). There was always corruption involved!"

Lajim: "Retract your statement! We have the Anti-Corruption Agency (to monitor corruption). When the Opposition Leader (Anwar Ibrahim) was finance minister before, was there no corruption? You are only a first-time MP!"

'Don't give me instructions!'

At this point, the deputy speaker was forced to intervene to calm the situation.

He explained that Lajim was not accusing Anwar "but during his era as finance minister were there not any corruption cases? That is what he was trying to say".

The war of words became more heated when Lajim claimed that the Padang Serai MP came into the House by (the) buntut (of) the opposition leader.

This ticked off several Pakatan MPs including Khalid Abdul Samad (PAS-Shah Alam) who stood up and protested to Wan Junaidi that the word was not parliamentary.

Wan Junaidi: "How could I make a decision if everyone is talking? If you want to hear my decision, you all have to stop talking."

Lajim: "Please, let me explain. What I meant was, following from behind, that means buntut too."

Wan Junaidi: "Then you should have used polite words in the House rather than using the word buntut. Use 'following from behind' instead."

However, Gobalakrishnan was not satisfied with the explanation and insisted that the deputy minister retracts his remark.

Wan Junaidi was once again forced to intervene.

"If you keep shouting and yelling, how could I make my decision? You don't give me instructions YB!" he told Gobalakrishnan.

"We are good friends in this Dewan, but don't you ever give me instructions on what I should do." - malaysiakini.com