Four Pakatan MPs might miss Parliament sitting today, stuck in Jakarta due to faulty Malaysia Airlines plane
KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 — Four government lawmakers are currently stranded in Jakarta, Indonesia after their scheduled flight back to Malaysia was cancelled yesterday due to their Malaysia Airlines plane encountering technical difficulties.
Tuaran Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau, who is the immediate past president of Upko, Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen from DAP, Petaling Jaya MP Lee Chean Chung and Subang Jaya MP Wong Chen, who are both from PKR, have been stranded at the Jakarta airport for over 20 hours.
All four lawmakers were in the Indonesian capital for the past three days to attend the Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights conference and were supposed to be back for today’s Dewan Rakyat sitting to debate the Budget and other matters.
Wong said that the quartet might be forced to miss today’s sitting as their next flight home is now scheduled to depart Jakarta only in the afternoon.
“Stuck in Jakarta latest update. Passengers have been informed that we are now rescheduled to fly at 2pm today, arriving in KLIA at 5.10pm,” he wrote on Facebook this morning.
“I was supposed to meet women rights NGOs on the lack of gender responsive budgeting on Budget 2023 at 12pm in Parliament today. I was also due to preside as acting speaker for Kamar Khas at 2.30pm, as there may be emergency debates on the Johor floods,” he added.
In a separate Facebook post, Dr Yii said he was made to understand that their original plane had a problem with its communications systems.
“Apparently there is a problem with the communications systems as the pilot cannot communicate with the tower.
“Glad they figured that out before we flew. They tried restarting the system a few times but it still didn't work,” the Bandar Kuching MP said late last night, adding that it looked like they would have to spend another night in Jakarta.
In his Facebook post, Madius said all four of them were supposed to board the 6.40pm Malaysia Airlines plane home yesterday.
A screenshot of the original MH722 flight that the MPs were supposed to take back to Malaysia yesterday. — Picture courtesy of Facebook/Wilfred Madius Tangau
“We have already checked in and gone through immigration. Suddenly the flight was delayed and then cancelled. As a member of Parliament, I am responsible to attend the Dewan Rakyat tomorrow,” he posted late last night, sharing several pictures of himself with the other three MPs at the Jakarta airport waiting area.
“We four Members of Parliament had to wait in Jakarta until there was a MAS plane. This kind of thing should not happen,” he said.
The current Dewan Rakyat session is scheduled to end on April 4 as announced by Speaker Datuk Seri Johari Abdul last week.
Currently, MPs are debating the revised Budget 2023 that was retabled by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who is also finance minister on February 24.
