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DAP MP Fong Kui Lun to move urgent debate of Thursday’s five-hour five-state power outage on second day of special Parliament sitting next Tuesday
Media Statement (2) by Lim Kit Siang (Parliament, Saturday): DAP MP for Bukit Bintang Fong Kui Lun has given notice to the Speaker, Tan Sri Ramli Ngah Talib to seek an urgent debate of Thursday’s five-hour five-state power outage on the second day of the special Parliament sitting on Tuesday. Parliament should be given a full and detailed report as to why a five-state power outage, which the Tenaga Nasional deputy president Datuk Abdul Hadi Mohd Deros has said “should not have happened” and “cannot happen” had happened, the compensation that Tenaga Nasional proposes to make to the million TNB customers who had suffered losses and hardships and how Tenaga Nasional could guarantee a zero-breakdown system and carry out the Prime Minister’s injunction that there would be no recurrence of the five-hour five-state power outage. The emergency debate on the power outage in Parliament on Tuesday would also provide an opportunity for MPs, whether from Barisan Nasional or Opposition, to let the government, the Ministry of Energy, Communications and Water and Tenaga Nasional know the feelings, frustrations and demands of the million TNB consumers at the power outage, especially as TNB does not seem to be able to learn from previous power failures. Fong could not present his emergency motion under Standing Order 18(1) for debate on Monday, the first day of the two-day special sitting to enact the Constitution Amendment Bill 2004 to federalize water management, as the slot has been taken by the Barisan Nasional MP for Kemamam, Shabery Cheek, who had already given notice to move a motion of urgent definite importance on the tsunami catastrophe on Monday. At the opening of the Courtesy and Noble Values Campaign at Istana Budaya on Tuesday, I had spoken to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi suggesting that the tsunami catastrophe was such a huge disaster nationally and internationally with far-reaching ramifications that he should himself move a motion on the subject at the beginning of the special Parliament sitting. The tsunami disaster issue is even bigger than the Constitution Amendment Bill. Malaysia’s roles as Chair of Non-Aligned Movement and Organisation of Islamic Conference are added reasons why the Prime Minister should move such a tsunami motion, which will allow the Malaysian Parliament to be the first Parliament in the world to debate the tsunami catastrophe in a proper and serious manner to influence world thinking on the subject. Several Cabinet Ministers whom I spoke to at the opening ceremony agreed that it would be most proper and timely for the Prime Minister to move such motion to debate the tsunami catastrophe in the special Parliament sitting on Monday. It is most regrettable that the Cabinet the next day decided that it would be sufficient for the tsunami catastrophe to be addressed in Parliament by way of Shabery Cheek’s Standing Order 18 motion, which would lead to a one-hour inconclusive debate as there would be no vote, instead of a formal and proper motion under Standing Order 27 in the name of the Prime Minister, which most likely would lead to an unanimous resolution recorded for the information and guidance of all national, regional and international players on how to deal with future tsunami catastrophes. |