‘Big monkeys’ no longer welcome in Malaysian parliament

Malaysia’s Parliament has had enough of “big monkeys.”

Exasperated by a spate of name-calling and sexist remarks during parliamentary debates, the Malaysian government is embarking on a courtesy campaign to make lawmakers mind their language, news reports said on Monday.

“It is important for the (members of Parliament) to be more careful with their words,” Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Shafie Apdal was quoted as saying by The Star newspaper.

“Society will look at them (differently) if they misbehave.”

Shafie did not highlight any incident, but Malaysians have voiced increasing dismay about offensive remarks uttered by rival lawmakers during heated debates.

Shafie said officials were considering “several suitable approaches” to educate legislators, including distributing leaflets about proper speaking etiquette in Parliament, the national news agency Bernama reported.

Calls to Shafie’s cell phone went unanswered on Monday, and other ministry officials familiar with the campaign could not immediately be reached.

The first ever televised parliamentary session in April caused some viewers to accuse government and opposition legislators of disgraceful behavior after watching both sides hurl epithets such as “big monkey” and “bigfoot” at each other.

Last year, two ruling party lawmakers were pressured to apologize amid a public furor for making crude remarks about a female colleague’s menstrual cycle.

source: http://www.odt.co.nz/news/world/30198/039big-monkeys039-no-longer-welcome-malaysian-parliament