Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of parliamentary affairs Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz already said before “Compared to other parliaments in countries of equal development as Malaysia, our quality of debate is still relatively low.”

Mohd Said and Bung Mokhtar revel that they are among the more colourful characters in the Dewan Rakyat, often interspersing their speeches with jokes, anecdotes and jibes at the Opposition.

This is their way of livening things up This is the way they get media attention. It may also well be the way to improve their chances from their constitutencies of being re-elected, so they think rightly or wrongly.

The problem is of course some of the jokes and jibes are crude, tasteless, sexist and ribald with sexual connotations directed at the opposite side’s female Opposition members.

But these are precisely the nature of jokes that many of the BN MPs are livened up. We are still very much a patriarchal society steeped in patriarchal cultural norms that relegate women to inferior position and make them a butt of sexist jokes, and the Dewan Rakyat might well reflect a microcosm of the larger society for which the MPs are ‘representative’.

It is an issue more than just whether Mother’s Day is shamed or whether the offenders who made sexist and offensive jokes at the expense of women themselves have wives, mothers and daughters and why BN women MPs were not protesting to uphold the respect for their gender.

They won’t support the Opposition’s motion under the Standing Order 26 (1P) to refer the two BN MPs to the Committee of Privileges, they will defeat it on tecnicality, because the BN fellas think this is trivial offence as compared to its tremendous value to distract and disrupt the serious point raised by DAP MPs concerning ceiling leaks after a RM100 million renovation works, which reflect the wider malaise of government contracts being awarded to the wrong contractors not based on merits.

The more fuss and ruckus the DAP MPs made over “Batu Gajah pun bocor tiap-tiap bulan pun bocor juga”, the better for BN – it was playing directly into their hands – because it would divert everyone’s attention from the larger substantive issues of award of government contracts from being addressed and the shenanigans exposed!

When there is no integrity of governance especially in respect of award of government contracts and diversionary tactics like sexist jokes are used to distract and hijack proper debate, it becomes hollow what Nazri Aziz said that “we want our MPs to get their facts right and debate in an objective, civil manner. Only then can we start talking about having a First World Parliament”.

Since when are his MPs prepared to debate rationally on facts and logic? How could it be possible when the facts and logic have never been with them on these issues from day one?

Nazri seems to forget the First World Mentality and genuine desire for First World Governance must come first before First World Parliament is possible.

That was why Nazri, who read out the bills of the day, left the Dewan Rakyat at precisely the juncture when YB objected, “Do we allow this sexist, offensive remarks to pass. They are celebrating, that the motion is rejected pointing at BN MPs who were thumping at their desks.

Nazri knew the incongruity of what was happening in relation to what he said earlier about First World Parliament. He knew there was nothing he could do about it. Better leave than be embarrassed.