VISITORS to the PAS president Tan Sri Hadi Awang’s X page would likely be impressed that the absent-prone Islamic cleric has put in an effort to attend Dewan Rakyat proceedings for two days in a row on Monday (July 15) and yesterday (July 16).

Given the seven-term Marang MP’s frail condition of having to move about aided by a walking stick and being hand-held by a personal assistant, it is little wonder that many netizens have urged the 76-year-old lawmaker to call it a day while paving the way for succession planning.

In fact, an observant commenter noted that Hadi is much younger than twice former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (who recently celebrated his 99^th birthday) and is of the same age as Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Bersatu president/Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Some netizens even ticked off Hadi for his highly-impressive content as if to cover up his high absenteeism rate with one even suggested that the video should focus on his participation in debate instead of “walking in and out of the hall with his hands held” by his personal assistant.

For his July 15 X post where the PAS head honcho showed up for the first time after a long time, few netizens described the occasion as “a historical moment”.

But they teased him for the loud background music that accompanied the video clip and the so many photography requests.

Recall that Hadi did not even turn up at the opening of the first meeting of the Third Session of the 15th Parliament graced by His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia on Feb 26

During Sultan Ibrahim’s royal address, the PAS president’s seat at the front row of the opposition bench was seen to be empty.

He had only attended 33 out of 103 Parliament sessions since July 26, 2021, according to data compiled by the MyMP database.

Previously, Dewan Rakyat speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul reportedly proposed that the names of MPs found to be deliberately absent from Parliamentary sittings be displayed on the Dewan Rakyat website.

This, he said, will allow their respective constituents to be aware of the matter, hence may boost the attendance of MPs during Dewan Rakyat sittings. - July 17, 2024

https://focusmalaysia.my/a-rarity-when-grand-pas-leader-come-a-calling-to-the-august-house-a-k-a-dewan-rakyat/