KUALA LUMPUR: Marang member of Parliament (MP) Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang allegedly did not attend the opening session of the Dewan Rakyat, graced by His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia.
During the King's royal address, the Pas president's seat at the front row of the opposition bench was seen to be empty.
According to data compiled by MyMP (mymp.org.my) database, since July 26, 2021, Hadi had only attended 33 of 103 Parliament sessions.
MyMP is an initiative started in 2016 by the Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights, and tracks the availability, loyalty, win rate and work ethic of MPs.
To track attendance, MyMP uses data from Parliament hansards, which marks the attendance of the MPs.
In November last year, Dewan Rakyat speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul said the names of MPs found to be absent from Parliamentary sittings deliberately will be displayed on the Dewan Rakyat website so constituents could be well informed.
He had said that this was among the improvements being implemented to boost the attendance of MPs, and would discuss the suggestion with the Parliamentary committee, which includes MPs from both the government and opposition blocs.
It was previously reported that Hadi had been hospitalised at the National Heart Institute.
On Jan 7, his aide, Mohd Syahir Che Sulaiman said Hadi's condition had improved and he was awaiting to be discharged.
Hadi, 76, was reported to be at IJN for a heart examination since Jan 1.
The NST had reached out to his aide to confirm Hadi's health condition.
In November 2022, Hadi had defended his poor attendance record by saying that it could not be compared with students attending school, due to differences in systems and processes.
During his campaign run in the 15th General Election, Hadi had said most people did not understand the roles that MPs play, adding that at the time, he was also Malaysia's Special Envoy to the Middle East which had limited his time in the Dewan Rakyat.