KUALA LUMPUR, April 3 — A Barisan Nasional (BN) lawmaker mockingly called today for a movie featuring rival parliamentarians and their antics to be produced by national broadcaster RTM.
Datuk Seri Ismail Mohd Said (BN-Kuala Krau) claimed this was because there were many “great actors” in Parliament.
“Hang Tuah Jaya (Primary Industries Deputy Minister Datuk Seri Shamsul Iskandar), Jelutong (RSN Rayer), Kapar (Datuk Abdullah Sani Abdul Hamid), Sungai Petani (Datuk Johari Abdul), Kuala Krau and even the Dewan Rakyat secretary (Datuk Roosme Hamzah) are all great actors!
“I propose a film with Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq (Syed Abdul Rahman) as the heroic icon and Speaker Datuk Mohamad Ariff Md Yusuf as one of the main actors.
“Oh, let’s not forget about Pokok Sena (Deputy Human Resource Minister Datuk Mahfuz Omar). The story should be about our antics during the Dewan Rakyat sessions,” he said with a grin.
Other MPs broke out in laughter at his suggestion and Deputy Communication and Multimedia Minister Eddin Syazlee Shith also chuckled before responding.
However, Eddin reminded the Opposition lawmaker that his side also has a penchant for theatrics.
“Regarding the great actors in this House... I think our storyline should be the walkout,” he said, referring to the Opposition walkout yesterday.
“Unfortunately, I am not a director so I am unable to assess someone’s acting skills. But if you want to look at great actors, those from the other side are no less great (actors) too right?” Eddin needled back to the amusement of the House.
Returning to official matters, he said RTM’s practice of prioritising in-house efforts over proposals from private filmmakers will be reviewed.
He acknowledged RTM’s partiality for in-house productions over private producers in the past, even when the latter might have higher quality.
“I give a guarantee that eight to nine months from now this issue will be resolved. We don’t want to give priority to in-house producers or staff or similar processes. We will give the opportunity for all industry players to take part,” said Eddin.
