by Martin Jalleh

Who is small the boy in the Prime Minister’s Department who treats and turns parliament into his personal playground where he proudly leaves a trail of his political pooh behind?

Who is the small boy who tries to act tough, talks big and throws his weight around and wants everybody to think that he is the PM and that he knows everything?

Who is the small boy who childishly threatens and taunts those who stand up to him, and refuse to tolerate his temper, tantrums and theatrics?

Who is the small boy who cannot take criticisms and goes into a fit or a foul frolic or flaunts his foolishness according to his whim and fancy?

Who is the small boy who said he would advise the Cabinet to replace the then ACA Investigations Director with whom he had a war of words with!

Who is the small boy who told Parliament that former Lord President Salleh Abas and other senior judges involved in the judicial crisis 20 years ago were not “sacked”?

Who is the small boy who shouted in parliament like some street bully “racist and “bloody racist” at DAP MP M Kula Segaran – 41 times in a space of five to 10 minutes?

Who is the small boy, who, without any sense and sensitivity, told wheelchair-bound Karpal Singh in parliament: “You are just jealous because I am standing!”?

Who is the small boy whom a then member to the ruling coalition in Sabah told to “shut up” because of his “ignorance” of the social, security and economic problems in the state?

Who is the small boy whose colleague Bernard Dompok said was taking a “cheap shot” when he responded to Dompok’s resignation as chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee?

Who is the small boy who said that two MPs who had made sexist remarks following MP Fong Po Kuan’s observations of leaks in the Parliament building should not apologise to Fong?

Who is that small boy who said “Singapore is not a real country” (and whose inference of larger countries being more prone to corruption was absolutely wrong)?

Who is that small boy who called Lim Kit Siang (LKS) “Stupid, stupid, stupid…!” countless of times during a debate and got off scot free with his “stupid” salvoes grinning like a school bully?

Who is the small boy who looked so “stupid” when LKS produced a taped transcript of the then CJ advocating the abolition of Common Law, and on whose behalf the small boy had denied?

Who is the small boy who was speechless when Karpal Singh revealed the name of a Federal Court judge who had not written judgments in as many as 35 cases?

Who is the small boy who when explaining why he had issued a denial on behalf of the then CJ in connection with the Lingam video scandal, had very proudly declared: “I am his Minister”?

Who is the small boy who said that whistleblowers in the Lingam Tape scandal could be protected under a tabled Witness Protection Bill and later admitted there was no such bill?

Minister in the PM’s Department Nazri Abd Aziz has labelled Perak State Assembly Speaker V. Sivakumar a “boy speaker”. He says the Speaker “does not know what he is doing. He is not fit to be given such a heavy responsibility.”

Alas, who has been acting like a boy? Of course, the small boy in the PM’s department! A glance at Nazri’s track record (out of which a few examples have been give above) shows a trail of evidence that Nazri is nothing but a loudmouth, loose cannon and a lowdown Umnoputra in Parliament! He is laughable!

As a Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and the de facto law minister Nazri Abd Aziz is blind to the truth, biased, beholden to the Umno-dominated Government and begs and bends backwards to do its bidding. The boy Minister bulls, boasts, barks and brays, brazenly blunders, goes berserk and bullies…

In sharp contrast is Speaker V. Sivakumar – a man who has displayed such exemplary boldness and bravery. He has refused to be bribed, bought over or bullied and is ready to face the possible consequences in standing up to the powers-that-be.

Nazri has said that “the whole episode in Perak is a comedy”. It is the people of Perak who will have the last laugh!

Nazri has also called the fiasco in Perak a “mockery”. Was he referring to the jaundiced judgments delivered by the judicial commissioner who has chosen to remain cloistered enough in his chambers so as not to notice a clear “conflict of interest” in the matter?

(5 March 2009)