Adios Ramli Ngah Talib

The 222 newly elected MPs took their oath today. It will be an exciting Parliament this time around with 82 opposition members against 140 BN representatives.

History was made today with the appointment of a Sabahan Pandikar Amin Mulia as the new Dewan Rakyat Speaker. Adios to Ramli Ngah Talib, the immediate past speaker. Now he can fade away quitely to his kampung in Pasir Salak after a long service to the nation and the state of Perak. Even the parliament official website was very prompt in updating Pandikar Amin as the new Speaker as of today!

My first impression from afar of Ramli Ngah Talib was during my school days in the early 80s' when he came as the acting Perak Menteri Besar to officiate my school Annual Speech Day.

I remembers my school headmaster was very proud to announced that the Menteri Besar was a former student of the school, albeit only for his Form Five. Being a kampung boy, I was awed with this "big man" from Ipoh but as years past I starts to look at this big man as just another Umno politician with agenda of his own.

But no matter what, this guy really a political survivor. After being dumped as the Menteri Besar in 1999, he gentlemanly accepted appointment as the deputy transport minister after contesting a parliamentarian seat that year. Many politician his stature would have balked at this junior position as a slap in his face. But he persevered and was duly appointed the Dewan Rakyat Speaker in November 2004 after the demised of the long serving speaker Zahir Ismail.

Ramli was reluctant to let go of the speaker's post but at the end of the day he has to accept the political manouvering by the BN leadership. The BN leadership in KL had to submit to pressure from the East Malaysian BN politicians to allocate more positions to Sabahans and Sarawakians as a goodwill gesture to their contribution in providing 54 parliamentary seats to ensure the continuity of the BN federal government.

For this time around, it's the end of the road for Ramli Ngah Talib. Unless of course if he is appointed the next Dewan Negara Speaker!

For political parties, no one is indispensable. You played by the game rules and kick-out by the same rules!