Malaysia swears in new lawmakers in historic Parliament sitting; opposition MPs stage walkout

• Malaysian lawmakers were sworn in to Parliament on 16 Jul 18 with opposition MPs staging a brief protest walkout as retired judge Mohamad Ariff Yusof was being sworn in as Speaker.
• Opposition MPs said the new government had appointed a Speaker without following the two-week due notice.
• “We are not objecting to the choice of Speaker but the process by which he was named as candidate,” said Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, an Umno lawmaker and former deputy prime minister who is now opposition chief.
• He was accompanied by fellow lawmakers from Barisan Nasional (BN) as well as those from Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS).
• Former prime minister Najib Razak, who joined the walkout, said: “As opposition, we want to stress on the principle of adhering to the rules.”
• It was the first time the Pakatan Harapan (PH) alliance sat on the government bench. The historic sitting also saw Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad returning to Parliament as premier. In response to the mass walkout, Dr Mahathir said: “They’re now behaving in the very same way (as the opposition did previously), which they say is bad.”

External Link: https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/malaysia-swears-in-new-lawmakers-in-historic-parliament-sitting