Sabah Speech Sensation: the Minister, his Former Assistant and the Deputy Speaker

Minister's speech continually interrupted by former assistant.

Being interrupted and heckled isn’t always considered a typical occupational hazard of a public speaker. But when you give a speech in Parliament, the Assembly, the Senate or the House, things are different.

That’s the nature of modern democracy.

No more so than in the Sabah State Assembly in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia. The Resource Development and Information Technology Minister, Datuk Dr Yee Moh Chai, was delivering the Budget winding-up speech when he was repeatedly interrupted…by his former assistant.

That’s right. Such was the tie between the Minister and his former assistant that she chose to repeatedly interrupt his budget speech. It has to be noted that she’s now an Opposition Representative for SAPP Luyong. That might explain the heckling. But the hostility? That’s probably personal. Hell hath no fury like a personal assistant scorned.

The Minister tried to keep going with his speech. And his former assistant for five years, Melanie Chia Chua Chui Ket, kept interrupting.

Who won out? It was probably a draw. The Minister battled back with some quick jibes and he shouted at his heckler to stop interrupting his speech. The loser was undoubtedly the Deputy Speaker Datuk Johnny Mositun whose handling of the speech interruptions seemed weak.