Dewan Rakyat speaker Mohamad Ariff Yusof said his Singapore counterpart Tan Chuan Jin was “at the wrong place and at the wrong time” after witnessing a commotion in the august house today.

Ariff, however, assured the Singapore Parliament speaker and his delegation that such scenes did not happen every day in the Malaysian Parliament.

"I can assure you Tan and the rest of your delegation that it doesn't happen every day. You were as they say, at the wrong time and at the wrong place.

"But it gave you the idea of how the Malaysian Parliament could look like, which gave the speaker some hard time," he said during his speech at the 'Speaker's Lecture Series: Governance in Singapore - A parliamentary perspective' at the Parliament House.

Earlier, Tan and his delegation were in the Dewan Rakyat when Tanjung Karang MP Noh Omar defied the three-day ban imposed by deputy speaker Nga Kor Ming to attend today’s sitting.

Courtesy call

The Singaporean parliamentary delegation had earlier paid a courtesy call on Ariff and Dewan Negara president SA Vigneswaran at the Parliament House.

The delegation touched on the long-standing bilateral ties between Malaysia and Singapore in the meeting.

Vigneswaran said the visit helped strengthen the relations between parliamentarians from both countries, as well as allowed the exchange of views on administering the august house.

"Although there have been some issues between Malaysia and Singapore before, we need to look into other broader aspects.

"There are Malaysians who work or live there (in Singapore), and vice versa. This relationship needs to be maintained," he told Bernama.

Apart from that, Vigneswaran said Malaysia could also study the public housing programme in Singapore, which integrated citizens from different ethnic groups.

"Although there are quotas for houses for every race in Singapore, there is no racial segregation in the residential areas. 

"These are among other things we took into account during their visit today, "he said.

- Bernama