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The Member of Parliament for Ranau, Siringan Gubat, was thrown out of Dewan Rakyat, the Lower House of the Malaysian Parliament this morning.
Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Haji Mulia suspended the first-term MP at about 11.35am after the latter interrupted him. However, Pandikar said Siringan could return at 2.30pm after the lunch break.
The incident started after fellow MP Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa of the opposition Pan-Islamic Party (PAS) had asked what the government was doing to curb parties that used a narrow perspective of the term 'social contract' to attack other races in their speeches.
His question created an uproar.
As the MP for Parit Buntar finished asking his question, he said he heard someone call him "bodoh" (stupid).
So he shouted: "Kalau jantan, berdiri sekarang. (If you are man enough, stand up.)"
This led the Speaker to advise MPs to behave themselves.
Just as Pandikar finished speaking, Siringan, who remained seated instead of standing up and seeking permission to speak, said: "Ngam, Tuan Speaker, Ngam.(Correct, Mr Speaker, Correct.)"
The Speaker immediately asked him to leave the House. Siringan asked if he could be forgiven, but the Speaker stood firm.
However, when met by reporters at the Parliament lobby, Siringan said he was not angry over the Speaker's ruling.
"I did not ask for permission when I said that. If it is not right, I am sorry about that.
"It is ok, I am alright," he said.
Although it is common for Opposition MPs to be sent out of the Malaysian Parliament, Siringan was the first government backbencher to be suspended, at least since the current House was convened after the March 2008 election. Another first was that both Pandikar and Siringan happen to be Sabahans.
"In suspending Siringan, Pandikar was also trying to show that being a fellow Sabahan MP and a backbencher doesn't save one from suspension," a political observer commented.
Siringan, also known as Alliance, first shot to political fame when he defeated his former boss, the late Datuk Mark Koding, in a by-election for the State Constituency of Ranau in 1989. The present Ranau parliamentary seat was then known as Kinabalu.
Siringan, a university graduate from the United States, was Koding's political secretary when the former was Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Industrial Development under the Sabah United Party (PBS) government.
Prior to the by-election, Koding was sacked as a member of the State Cabinet by then Chief Minister and PBS president Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan for allegedly undermining the State Government and Pairin's leadership.
Siringan stay put in PBS and was chosen as the ruling party's candidate against his former boss in the ensuing by-election.
Although Siringan remained Ranau Assemblyman until 2004, he switched party in 1994 after the collaspe of the PBS government which had won with only a slim majority in the March election that year.
He joined the Sabah Democratic Party (PDS) led by a former Deputy Chief Minister under the PBS government, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok. PDS was one of the splinter groups formed by former PBS leaders and all of which joined the new ruling coalition, BN.
PDS later changed its name to the United Pasok-Momogun Kadazan Organisation (UPKO) by which time Siringan had become an Assistant Minister under the new National Front (BN) government.
Dompok himself became Chief Minister under the BN's unique system of rotation of the post whereby the Muslim Natives, Non-Muslim Natives, and Chinese take turns to become CM for two years. However, Dompok served for only 9 months as he was defeated in the 1999 state election by a PBS candidate. The system has since been scrapped and the present CM, Datuk Musa Aman has been one since 2003.
Dompok was however elected MP after he moved to Kinabalu (later Ranau) in the parliamentary election held a few months later and was subsequently appointed a Federal Minister. Re-elected Ranau MP in 2004, Dompok however moved back to his former parliamentary constituency of Penampang in 2008; thus enabling Siringan to take his place.
Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Haji Mulia suspended the first-term MP at about 11.35am after the latter interrupted him. However, Pandikar said Siringan could return at 2.30pm after the lunch break.
The incident started after fellow MP Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa of the opposition Pan-Islamic Party (PAS) had asked what the government was doing to curb parties that used a narrow perspective of the term 'social contract' to attack other races in their speeches.
His question created an uproar.
As the MP for Parit Buntar finished asking his question, he said he heard someone call him "bodoh" (stupid).
So he shouted: "Kalau jantan, berdiri sekarang. (If you are man enough, stand up.)"
This led the Speaker to advise MPs to behave themselves.
Just as Pandikar finished speaking, Siringan, who remained seated instead of standing up and seeking permission to speak, said: "Ngam, Tuan Speaker, Ngam.(Correct, Mr Speaker, Correct.)"
The Speaker immediately asked him to leave the House. Siringan asked if he could be forgiven, but the Speaker stood firm.
However, when met by reporters at the Parliament lobby, Siringan said he was not angry over the Speaker's ruling.
"I did not ask for permission when I said that. If it is not right, I am sorry about that.
"It is ok, I am alright," he said.
Although it is common for Opposition MPs to be sent out of the Malaysian Parliament, Siringan was the first government backbencher to be suspended, at least since the current House was convened after the March 2008 election. Another first was that both Pandikar and Siringan happen to be Sabahans.
"In suspending Siringan, Pandikar was also trying to show that being a fellow Sabahan MP and a backbencher doesn't save one from suspension," a political observer commented.
Siringan, also known as Alliance, first shot to political fame when he defeated his former boss, the late Datuk Mark Koding, in a by-election for the State Constituency of Ranau in 1989. The present Ranau parliamentary seat was then known as Kinabalu.
Siringan, a university graduate from the United States, was Koding's political secretary when the former was Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Industrial Development under the Sabah United Party (PBS) government.
Prior to the by-election, Koding was sacked as a member of the State Cabinet by then Chief Minister and PBS president Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan for allegedly undermining the State Government and Pairin's leadership.
Siringan stay put in PBS and was chosen as the ruling party's candidate against his former boss in the ensuing by-election.
Although Siringan remained Ranau Assemblyman until 2004, he switched party in 1994 after the collaspe of the PBS government which had won with only a slim majority in the March election that year.
He joined the Sabah Democratic Party (PDS) led by a former Deputy Chief Minister under the PBS government, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok. PDS was one of the splinter groups formed by former PBS leaders and all of which joined the new ruling coalition, BN.
PDS later changed its name to the United Pasok-Momogun Kadazan Organisation (UPKO) by which time Siringan had become an Assistant Minister under the new National Front (BN) government.
Dompok himself became Chief Minister under the BN's unique system of rotation of the post whereby the Muslim Natives, Non-Muslim Natives, and Chinese take turns to become CM for two years. However, Dompok served for only 9 months as he was defeated in the 1999 state election by a PBS candidate. The system has since been scrapped and the present CM, Datuk Musa Aman has been one since 2003.
Dompok was however elected MP after he moved to Kinabalu (later Ranau) in the parliamentary election held a few months later and was subsequently appointed a Federal Minister. Re-elected Ranau MP in 2004, Dompok however moved back to his former parliamentary constituency of Penampang in 2008; thus enabling Siringan to take his place.
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