Besides the tissue brand, Violet Yong also mentioned credit cards and a commercial centre. – UKAS livestream screengrab via Borneo Post Online
KUCHING, Feb 15 — DAP’s Pending assemblywoman, Violet Yong, caused a stir at the State Legislative Assembly today when she chose to bring up a tissue brand in her debate on the proposed renaming of the Sarawak Chief Minister’s post to ‘Premier’.
“I do not know about the others, but when I read the word ‘Premier’, the first thing that came to my mind is a tissue paper brand,” she said as she held up a poster of a tissue brand with the same name when she debated the Constitution of the State of Sarawak (Amendment) Bill, 2022.
She was immediately rebuked by Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) reps but she carried on talking about other items named ‘Premier’ such as credit cards and even a commercial centre here.
Speaker Tan Sri Datuk Amar Mohamad Asfia told Yong that members of the august House are to confine their observations to the subject under discussion.
“Introductions of things like tissue paper, credit cards and all that, it is not proper under Standing Order 32(1). I don’t think the (august) House should be subjected to this kind of rhetoric,” he added.
Wilfred Yap (GPS – Kota Sentosa) then stood up, saying that under Standing Order 32(11), the Speaker can make a decision on this particular matter whether Yong’s line of debate was allowed.
Unperturbed, Yong continued with her debate and argued that the word ‘Premier’ can be confusing to the public if used to refer to the head of government of Sarawak.
Citing a Borneo Post report, she said Universiti Malaya socio-political analyst Associate Professor Awang Azman Awang Pawi viewed changing the designation of ‘Chief Minister’ to ‘Premier’ could cause confusion or misunderstanding.
“So, it’s not only me who’s confused. Even the associate professor opined that it will cause confusion,” she said.
On a related matter, Yong said there will be financial implications from changing the title of Chief Minister to ‘Premier’ and assistant ministers to ‘deputy ministers’ as she referred to a note in the Bill which stated “the Bill will not involve the government in extra financial expenditure”.
She explained once the Bill is passed, all relevant stationery such as letterheads, name cards, websites, signboards including the car plates of the Chief Minister would require immediate change.
“So, definitely a substantial amount of money will be spent to do the reprinting of all these items. Are you saying that after the change, you don’t need to change your name cards?” she asked. — Borneo Post Online