COMMENT | Where is the respect for young people?

COMMENT | Last Monday, the Dewan Rakyat sat in full for the very first time this year. One of the first order of business for the House was the motion to have former Court of Appeal judge Mohamad Ariff Md Yusoff vacate his speaker post.

The deputy speaker from Perikatan Nasional (PN), who was spared the axe, allowed the members of Parliament to debate on the motion. Representatives from both sides of the political divide stood up to give their views on the motion, either for or against.

When Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman stood up to speak, he was immediately jeered and heckled by backbenchers from Umno. He was called "cucu atok" (grandfather's grandson), a reference to his allegiance to former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohammad and he was told to "balik (go back to) Muar". Umno's Jelebu MP Jalaluddin Alias rudely kept telling Syed Saddiq to sit down and shut up.

Jalaluddin is 59 years old. He is a first-time MP, but he was previously a state assemblyperson in Negeri Sembilan. He has also had experience serving as an exco under the BN administration in the state. All in all, Jalaluddin is a senior politician with years of experience behind him.

So it is unbecoming of someone like him to...