Opposition Mps Heckle Abdul Latiff Over Disaster Management

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Opposition MPs today heckled Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Special Functions) Abdul Latiff Ahmad as he was giving his responses to questions related to last December’s flood disasters, which were raised in the Dewan Rakyat today.
They had urged him to answer the most important question first - steps the government will take to ensure such a disaster does not occur again.
“You only have 51 seconds left (to speak), can you answer the main question? What steps will be taken to ensure this does not happen again? That is the main issue. You can answer the other questions in written form,” said Khalid Samad (Pakatan Harapan-Shah Alam).
He said this as he interrupted Abdul Latiff (above), who had been answering specific disaster-related questions raised by the lawmakers in Parliament today.
Each minister was only given 20 minutes to provide their responses, after which any unanswered questions will have to be replied to in written form within five working days.
In reply to Khalid, Abdul Latiff said Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob will form a committee to review all the bipartisan suggestions related to disaster management now and in the future.
Gobind Singh Deo (Harapan-Puchong) and several other opposition MPs then questioned what suggestions the minister was referring to.
“First of all, we will ensure that the disaster management will be more in-depth and thorough. There has to be a source of authority,” said Abdul Latiff.
This raised even more questions about the authority of the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) among the opposition MPs, who again started to drown out Abdul Latiff.
“We are in the process of drafting a bill on disaster management… which will cover, among others, the management, enforcement, preparedness and disaster risk reduction,” Abdul Latiff said before he was interrupted by RSN Rayer (Harapan-Jelutong).
“If there is another flood, then we are finished. This is the standard of the ministers. We are doomed,” Rayer said.
A visibly frustrated Abdul Latiff then said they had taken into account earlier suggestions from Rohani Abdul Karim (GPS-Batang Lupar) and Nurul Izzah Anwar (Harapan-Permatang Pauh).
In order to facilitate the minister’s responses, Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker Rashid Hasnon extended the time given to Abdul Latiff by a few minutes.
As the opposition MPs continued to heckle Abdul Latiff, an incensed Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (BN-Pasir Salak) stood up to defend the minister.
“You are all bullying the minister,” he shouted repeatedly.
Eventually, the opposition MPs dialled down, enough for the minister to finish the last few sentences of his speech, even though the former appeared to remain dissatisfied with his answers.
Notably, while Ismail Sabri was among four ministers who gave a briefing in Parliament today on the flood disasters, he did not return to answer subsequent questions raised by the MPs. - Mkini

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