Dewan Rakyat stunned temporarily due to Opposition absence

PETALING JAYA: The Dewan Rakyat was briefly stunned on Monday (Nov 20) morning as the Opposition bloc was completely empty at the start of proceedings.

The matter was raised by Datuk Mohd Isam Mohd Isa (BN-Tampin) after noticing the absence of opposition MPs in the House.

"It's not that not many are not present, there is not even a single opposition MP.This is what you get for choosing the opposition," he said.

However, proceedings still continued as there were enough MPs in the House.

This was just before Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul called on Datuk Ramanan Ramakrishnan (PH-Sungai Buloh) to raise his question during Oral Question Time.

Earlier, Johari said that the questions raised by Datuk Ali Anak Biju (PN-Saratok) and Datuk Ahmad Amzad Mohamed (PN-Kuala Terengganu) would be skipped as they are both absent from the House.

Opposition MPs are absent from the Dewan Rakyat as they are attending a gathering in Putrajaya as a show of support for the PAS-led Kelantan state government in a case against the state's Syariah Criminal Code (I) Enactment 2019.

The constitutional challenge was filed by lawyer Nik Elin Zurina Nik Abdul Rashid and her daughter Tengku Yasmin Natasha Tengku Abdul Rahman in May last year to nullify 20 provisions in the syariah enactment.

The mother-daughter pair claimed that the Kelantan legislative assembly had no power to make such laws as it contravened Article 4(4) of the Federal Constitution.

The nine-panel Federal Court judges are slated to continue the proceedings to hear the petition by the mother and daughter.