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."