Tunku Abdul Aziz: "MPs Should Respect the Sanctity of Their Own Institution"

by

Tunku Abdul Aziz
(Tunku Abdul Aziz is the former President of Transparency International and former Special Adviser to the UN Secretary-General on ethics)

Quote:

"... Members of Parliament owe it to themselves, and those who have voted for them, to respect the sanctity of their own institution.

In practical terms, this means they should act and behave in a way that brings credit to themselves and honour to our parliamentary democratic form of government.

It is simply too childish and no self-respecting person should allow those infantile words to tumble out of his mouth, no matter how heated an argument or grave the provocation.

It is all about self-control, self respect and discipline.

A person’s behaviour in and out of public life says a great deal more about his personal values and standards than all the external trappings of office he surrounds himself with.

These, unfortunately, are not isolated incidents. They have happened before.

Honourable members (of Parliament) must stop the habit of scoring cheap debating points however great the temptation might be."
-Tunku Abdul Aziz

IT IS bad enough, judging by the normal standards of civilised behaviour, for Fong Po Kuan, the MP for Batu Gajah to be degraded and humiliated in Parliament recently by the MP for Jasin, Datuk Mohd Said Yusof, and the MP for Kinabatangan, Datuk Bung Mokhtar, by their decidedly "over the top" remarks.

It is a sad commentary on our value systems that some of our politicians who should know better are falling over themselves to justify what I can only with difficulty describe as loutish behaviour.

To add insult to injury, a certain minister has tried, somewhat clumsily I thought, to play down and trivialise the incident by dismissing it as "This is part of parliamentary debates. Both MPs uttered the words during the heat of their debate, and you cannot control people’s emotions."

Citizens have every right to feel utterly let down by his cavalier, and worse, his callous attitude towards the rights of women to protect their dignity.

The statement attributed to the same minister, "To apologise to Fong is not on. I don’t agree... I am sure they did not have an agenda against Fong" is extremely unfortunate, to say the least, in the circumstances.

This latest display of unbecoming conduct has further eroded public confidence and respect for parliamentarians, and, sadly, the institution of parliament itself.

These, unfortunately, are NOT isolated incidents. They have happened before, and honourable members must stop the habit of scoring cheap debating points however great the temptation might be.

It is simply too childish and no self-respecting person should allow those infantile words to tumble out of his mouth, no matter how heated an argument or grave the provocation. It is all about self-control, self respect and discipline.

Members of parliament owe it to themselves, and those who have voted for them, to respect the sanctity of their own institution.

In practical terms, this means they should act and behave in a way that brings credit to themselves and honour to our parliamentary democratic form of government.

A person’s behaviour in and out of public life says a great deal more about his personal values and standards than all the external trappings of office he surrounds himself with.

At the end of the day, we are really talking about gallant and gentlemanly behaviour towards others, particularly the ladies present.

This case should be a lesson to all who make it a habit of ignoring the vital need to think before they speak.

It is less a primer on gender and human rights issues, and more about what is and what is not acceptable behaviour, especially in a setting such as that of the Dewan Rakyat that seems to scream out for a demonstration of decorum and restraint.

There is no substitute for decency of thought and deed. Anything else falls short of minimum civilised standards of human behaviour.

Malaysian men have for far too long been accustomed to getting away with their appallingly chauvinistic attitude towards women.

They are coming in for a severe shock if they think that the world is prepared to wait submissively until we men are ready to change our approach to, and outlook on, life as being defined more and more by the new empowered women, women who are today providing strong and effective leadership in all the important spheres of human activity.

They have put up long enough with the male-dominated and manipulated world, and are bravely challenging man-made rules, long accepted cheerfully as the natural order of things, as an article of faith.

Today they are taking them completely apart. When, after a month in a New York kindergarten, my 5-year-old girl came home one afternoon and said, "Papa, you do not respect my human rights" because I would not let her have another sweet, I knew the world would never be the same again.

In the US, they start learning about human rights and dignity at a very young age.

I was never more conscious about human rights, gender and race issues as I was in the United States. No where else in the world is there greater awareness of "political correctness" as in America. This is all part of your social skills.

When I was setting up the UN Ethics Office in New York, I had assigned to me a number of highly qualified female colleagues with whom I got on extremely well.

One day, after our departmental meeting, and while they were gathering up their papers to leave, I happened to glance at the New York Times on my desk, and saw a picture of Nancy Pelosi, the new Democratic Party leader of the US Congress.

I was struck by her poise and beauty and remarked that she was "beautifully preserved for her age".

There was complete silence, dropped jaws everywhere, and I asked what I had done wrong.

I was told, almost in a chorus that my remark was sexist; I should have complimented Pelosi on her intellectual attributes and not on her physical ones!

Imagine how a remark such as that directed at our MP for Batu Gajah would have been taken in America. I dread to even contemplate.

I very much hope that the Speaker of the House will in future pay careful attention to the language used and cut a member short before he, or she for that matter, gets too carried away.

People, me included, love to hear their own voices and think that their most excruciatingly inane remarks are somehow clever and humorous.

Had the speaker intervened and made an appropriate ruling in a timely manner, perhaps the "leak" would not have turned into a flash flood.

At the end of the day, MPs must rely on their conscience and self-discipline to see them through a difficult day in the House.

Let us all learn from this unholy row and observe the basic rules of harmonious human relations which call essentially for good manners and consideration of other people’s feelings.