Speaker tells ministers to be on time after Health Ministry no-show in Dewan Rakyat

He said such situations arise when Members of Parliament (MPs) scheduled to ask questions cannot attend for unavoidable reasons, resulting in their questions being skipped. — Bernama file pic

First Published: Friday, 06 Nov 2026 10:48 AM MYT

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 — Members of the administration have been urged to arrive early for Dewan Rakyat sittings instead of waiting for their turn to speak, ensuring smooth proceedings and avoiding absences that reflect poorly on the House.

Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul said the admonition followed an incident during this morning’s sitting when questions could not be answered due to the absence of the relevant parties.

He said such situations arise when Members of Parliament (MPs) scheduled to ask questions cannot attend for unavoidable reasons, resulting in their questions being skipped.

“Naturally, the Speaker will skip the question, as happened this morning. The Minister or Deputy Minister is outside, unaware because, according to the order paper, their turn is still far off. When their turn comes, they are not present either, so the Speaker has to skip it as well. As such, this does not portray a good picture.

“I would like to advise members of the administration to arrive early and be in the Dewan even if your question number is scheduled later,” he said before the winding-up session of the debate on the Supply (Budget) 2027 Bill and the 2027 Development Expenditure Motion at the committee stage for the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development (KKDW) in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

Johari also requested ministry officials, particularly secretaries-general, to advise ministerial officers to regularly check for changes in the question sequence with the Dewan Rakyat secretariat.

“This is because at the last minute, names or question numbers sometimes change due to requests from ministers or other unavoidable reasons that we have to accommodate,” he said.

He said all parties must play their role in improving the conduct of Dewan Rakyat sittings, especially now that the institution has administrative autonomy.

Earlier, several opposition lawmakers raised concerns over the absence of Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad and his deputy, Datuk Hanifah Hajar Taib, from answering questions during the Question Time session in the Dewan Rakyat this morning.

Their absence was noticed after Deputy Speaker Alice Lau called on Zahir Hassan (PH-Wangsa Maju) to ask the third question addressed to the Ministry of Health, as listed in the Order Paper.

During the session, the second question scheduled for the Ministry of Transport was skipped after the MP for Kepala Batas, who was supposed to table the question, was absent from the lower house of Parliament, causing the session to move on to the next question.

However, the minister or deputy minister responsible for answering the next question was outside the hall, so that question was also skipped when their name was called. — Bernama