After the great perturbations twitched by a defunct ban on the media to commingle in the Parliament lobby, one very nearly vote of no-confidence, a Chair versus MP apologetic non-apology, one salacious sodomy charge and three explosive statutory declarations – all a ball of issues ricocheting inside the Dewan Rakyat like a super-charged pinball machine, the House regained its equilibrium by settling down to one of its many default settings – a risqué sleight of hand by one of its clownish members.

Inevitably, the bawdy episode just had to be instructed by the Court Jester himself, Datuk Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan), a rapaciously colourful character driven by a ribald sense of humour and an opportunistic sense of outrage. In his indignation against what he perceived as attacks against his good stead, Bung Moktar would always engineer an offbeat response, one that may not make it in any good book on personal etiquette.

Who cares? Bung Moktar doesn’t. When debating, the Sabahan MP disposes an unmistakably thick, raspy brogue very east of Kuala Lumpur, yielding a man with no Shakespearean pretensions yet a soliloquist with a nonchalant way of uttering and delivering national and political ideas. With the thickest skin possible available to a human being, Bung Moktar constructs an all-powerful forcefield, deflecting easily the plundering by his bitter enemies, similar in built to Datuk Ibrahim Ali (Ind-Pasir Mas) and Karpal Singh (DAP-Bukit Gelugor), and yet able to fire back verbose in spurts, jabs and yelps, some of them asinine, but if the occasion suits, a voluminous cascade of fury and fuming.

There were a bunch of episodes where Bung Moktar, in his best yet flawed intentions to defend the BN’s honour, mounted a rapier-like posture, thrusting his sword against and parrying slashes from rival MPs with the gusto of a besotted Musketeer and almost always dragging himself out of the skirmish just as voluble and acerbic, and with a prize – the head of the rival MP he slashed and burned.

His favourite target over the years had been Karpal but that would mean putting two characters who mirror themselves to dubious perfection and yet repulsive of each other like magnetic like poles. Very much different yet very much the same, easily prone to name-calling (Karpal’s “Bigfoot’ to Bung Moktar’s “monkey”), theatrics (noisily removing the barricades that would have compelled the media to clamber into the lobby) and defending passionately the issues they care for very much.

What about the time, in countering what he thought was an insult against his good self; he made a sleazy reference to Fong Po Kuan (DAP-Batu Gajah) that the “parliament roofs were not the only one leaking” every month. In apologising for his off-coloured remarks, Bung Moktar rationalised his gratuitous response to heated arguments with DAP members who called him an “animal” and accusing the BN of corruption.

If that wasn’t inflammatory enough, his slingshot of the vulgar F-word against Chong Eng (DAP-Bukit Mertajam) triggered an Opposition bloc cataclysm. They demanded his head on a platter but Bung Moktar being Bung Moktar, shrewdly retracted the offensive word and apologised to the House, somewhat subduing his antagonists who felt cheated of a reward – all they saw was Bung Moktar being let off instead of getting a royal whipping.

It would appear now that Bung Moktar is not the repentant type, despite pledging that once he took up the post as deputy chairman of the BN Backbenchers Club, he would ease up on his histrionics. “What is in the past is in the past. We have to look forward now…it’s not only me, even Lim Kit Siang said some bad things,” Bung Mokhtar pledged when he was asked about his appointment though he did make a promise to continue to be “very outspoken.”

And today, that dubious-looking hand gesture apart from labelling the Opposition bloc as “stupid”. Bung Moktar even managed the feat ala David Blaine when he animated the gesture – the Opposition MPs failed to detect it until after they received word from their irate constituents.

During the Q&A session when Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development Minister Datuk Noh Omar answered the third question, House decorum collapsed a bit after Bung Moktar, in his normal mood for a bit of spicy altercation, accused the Chair of giving in to too much questions to the Opposition as opposed to the BN backbenchers and demanded an explanation. “This House is not controlled by the Opposition but by the Barisan Nasional. Our numbers are more than the Opposition,” Bung Moktar thundered.

Not to be intimidated by Kinabatangan’s antics, Deputy Speaker Datuk Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar countered that at times, there were more questions from the BN. M. Kulasegaran (DAP-Ipoh Barat) decided to take a potshot at Bung Moktar, labelling him as “power crazy” while some MPs, including Bung Moktar, were heard shouting “stupid” as if the scene was picked from a kindergarten sandlot.

It could have been this time that Bung Moktar conjured his allegedly lewd hand gesture. Or did he? Some viewers catching the disorderly disturbance on RTM1’s 30-minute telecast thought so, lodging complaints to Opposition MPs. It could also be described as a weird moment: how could none of the Opposition MPs spot Bung Moktar’s hand-fist pump magic? Was it because they simply didn’t see it or because they simply were unwary of its boorish connotation? "I did not see it but several of my constituents called to register their unhappiness over the incident," admitted Chong Eng.

Later, outside the House, Bung Moktar cheerily denied the accusations of making a lewd hand sign. "I never made any lewd gestures at the opposition," he said while demonstrating to the Press the “real” hand gesture he instructed. "Look, this is what I did," as he hit the back of his left hand with his right palm instead of the open palm being thumped against a clenched fist that he was accused of animating inside the House. The man must have truly enjoyed the gross simulation.

However, Bung Moktar readily conceded that he branded the Opposition MPs as “stupid” on the account that he was echoing what was latched upon him inside the House. 'They called me stupid, so I did the same to them," he avouched, maintaining his prickly reactionary position against his rivals on the other side of the political fence.

And like Ibrahim and Karpal, the House would be a little subjugated without the hoary sprightliness of Bung Moktar Radin, the self-appointed Court Jester par excellence.