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Chance for Anwar to take part in debate on DNA Bill

by: V. Vasudevan, Eileen Ng, Joseph Sipalan, Irdiani Mohd Salleh and Ili Liyana Mokhtar

DATUK Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be able to give his views, if he chooses to, on the much talked-about Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) Identification Bill 2008.

The government had asked the house for two days to debate and pass the bill and it should have been completed yesterday.

Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia yesterday decided to allow debate to continue today.

The opposition had said the bill's introduction was linked to Anwar's sodomy charge, although the government has repeatedly stated the bill had been in the works since 2001.

Yesterday, at the start of the debate, Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Barat) declared that the government was being "cowardly" in trying to see the bill through by yesterday, as it did not want Anwar to take part in the debate.
"Even if it is passed today, we still need to wait for the senate to pass the bill, which will only happen in December. It is clear this is a ploy to ensure Anwar will not take part in the debate," he declared to cheers from the opposition ranks.

However, in the lobby, Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said the notion did not cross his mind.

"This is the first time I'm hearing this. Why should we worry? A person is just a person."

He said the house had set aside two days, Aug 26 and 27, for the bill to be debated.

"It is up to the MPs whether they want the session to be extended. I don't know," he said, brushing off talk that the government did not want Anwar to debate the bill.

In the house, opposition members continued their attempts to derail the passage of the bill by calling on the government to refer it to a select committee.

Throughout the day, opposition members repeatedly highlighted what they deemed as irregularities in the bill. This was persistently countered by backbenchers.

Finally, late yesterday evening R. Sivarasa (PKR-Subang) tried to move a motion to refer the controversial bill to the select committee but Syed Hamid objected.

Syed Hamid told the house that the standing order Siva- rasa used was not interpreted correctly.

"He should have done this immediately after I had finished tabling the bill. Not after so many members had debated it." Sivarasa, a lawyer, disagreed.

A select committee is a panel that collects more feedback from the public and interest groups to clear any weaknesses in the bill. Once it is done, the committee will reintroduce the bill for debate.

Pandikar Amin said he needed time to check the statute books for precedents before he could make a ruling.

"I will rule on this tomorrow. There is no harm in having a few more members debating the bill."