7th October 2019
What a busy day. At 10.50 am, I gave a 10-minute briefing for Anwar Ibrahim on the latest economic and trade news. Then at 11 am, I organised a meeting for political scientist Wong Chin Huat and a few PKR MPs led by Chief Whip Dato Johari. Then at 12 noon, I joined Kelvin Yii of Kuching to greet six young American politicians. We visited the PAC office, gave them a short tour of Parliament and lastly Kelvin and I did a Q&A session with them.
At lunch, I was at the MESTECC briefing but nothing was said on the transboundary haze issue. At 2.30 pm, I was invited by Mustapha Mohamed of Jeli to join the Budget Select Committee briefing by the Bank Negara Governor. It was a good session, exchanging views and opinions with her. The briefing ended at 4 pm.
This was followed by several informal meetings with MPs from all parties, in particular catching up with Awang Hashim of Pendang and Hasan Ariffin of Rompin. I also meet up with several my GPS friends including Hanifah of Mukah, Lukanisman of Sibuti and Alexander of Kapit.
Also good to catch up with my usual suspects; Syed Ibrahim, Akmal, Nik Nazmi, Noraini, Thomas, Alice, Kashturi, Charles, Mastura, Larry, Yee Kew, William and Arthur. Izzah is unwell today.
The first day of this long session is a bit like a college reunion, I am constantly shaking hands, catching up with my colleagues and opponents. I take a simple attitude in dealing with the Opposition MPs in Parliament, not as enemies, but opponents of different ideas and policies. We can be cordial and even joke around outside the hall and yet in the hall, we debate as fiercely as we want.
My next posting will be on the controversial IPCMC Bill which was debated today.