Mahathir wants to monitor MPs

Mahathir wants to monitor MPs

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia's parliamentary Speaker has defended Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's right to follow legislative proceedings from his office via a closed-circuit television link.

But a senior opposition figure on Tuesday said the premier's long-distance "snooping" smacked of the Big Brother character in George Orwell's novel "1984."

Mahathir is mounting a drive against absenteeism by his coalition's MPs and has threatened to drop them as candidates unless they show up in parliament.

He disclosed last week that he was monitoring parliament's proceedings from his office in the administrative capital of Putrajaya some 25 kilometers away.

Lim Kit Siang, chairman of the opposition Democratic Action Party, said a direct telecast to only one person "smacks of a 21st century feudalism as well as George Orwell's 'Big Brother' at work."