The Hon. Rauff Hakeem, Attorney-at-Law

¶ 01 Hon. Deputy Speaker, I second the Motion moved by the Hon. Mujibur Rahuman.

¶ 02 At the Party Leaders’ meeting, we discussed that the Wednesday holiday to conserve fuel has effectively reduced Parliament’s sitting days. We request designating Monday as a sitting day, so the House still meets four days a week. Many Members from distant districts cannot do any official work on Wednesdays as offices are shut. The Speaker, Leader of the House, and Prime Minister can decide this; the President does not decide Parliamentary sittings. We must debate public issues during crises; reduce holidays for Parliament, not debates.

¶ 03 Turning to the war imposed on Iran, the world faces a major oil shortage. This is an asymmetrical conflict: an apartheid, genocidal State—Israel—together with the US, attacking Iran. Whether one likes Iran’s regime or not, Iran is not an apartheid or genocide State. The Government lacked the spine to condemn this. A war expected to end in days has gone on for weeks and may last months. Iran’s posture is to share the pain; the Third World applauds. Public opinion here would overwhelmingly back Iran over the US or Israel.

¶ 04 Our Government chose silence so as not to upset the Americans—even when an Iranian frigate was torpedoed near our waters. We took 11 hours without a decision, despite a diplomatic note and Security Council discussion; 100 cadets died. Later, the President said we performed our humanitarian duty per UN obligations—but that is merely obligatory.

¶ 05 At the well-known panel moderated by Palki Sharma, the Foreign Minister spoke of UNCLOS and the blue/green economy when asked about that incident—answers unrelated to the question. We have mixed our signals and damaged goodwill; notably, at yesterday’s Iftar, no Gulf envoys attended except from Malaysia and Indonesia.

¶ 06 Iran had warned that hosts of US bases would be targeted, and indeed infrastructure has been hit with precision strikes. If the Strait of Hormuz—only about two kilometres wide at its narrowest—remains constrained, and if Red Sea traffic is also impeded by Houthi actions, 20 percent plus another 12–13 percent of global oil could be jeopardized. We must prepare and call a spade a spade, as the ruling party did while in Opposition. Now, due to a lackadaisical foreign policy, we satisfy neither Palestinians then nor Iranians now, and we are losing friends all around.

¶ 07 Thank you.