Tamil Word Got Minister Into Hot Soup

PETALING JAYA: Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Idris Haron wanted to ask Mohd Nasir Zakaria (PAS-Padang Terap) to sit down and not interrupt him while he was speaking in the Dean Rakyat Tuesday (27 May) but he said it in Tamil "ukker".

But that didn’t sound quite right and got into hot soup when N.Gobalakrishnan (PKR-Padang Serai) to approach Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia to whisper to him that the word had sexual connotations if not pronounced properly.

Idris was unhappy at how things turned out, then asked the Indian MPs to tell him how it should be pronounced but none of the them was willing to teach him Tamil. Not to be outdone, Idris went on use the Mandarin equivalent to ask Mohd Nasir to sit down.

But Golalakrishnan got into trouble himself for leaving his chair and approaching the Speaker got Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament (MPs) riled up and demanded that he apologise for not observing parliamentary decorum.

The Opposition bench then got into the fray and demanded an apology from Idris for uttering profanity in Parliament, the situation got out of hand until Pandikar Amin stepped in to calm things down.

Pandikar said he allowed Gobalakrishnan to approach him as he too was curios about the Tamil word but told the MPs not to make it a habit of approaching him.

Things only settled down when PKR whip Mohamed Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak) told Gobalakrishnan to apologise and urged all parties to refrain from "causing unnecessary incidents in the august House".

So what was Idris saying before he interrupted?

MySinchew
27/05/08