Page 2 - Book Review Interactional Orderliness and Disorderliness

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Book Review / Ulasan Buku
Southeast Asian Social Science Review Vol. 8, No. 1, 2023, pp. 197-199, ISSN 0128-0406, e-ISSN 2550-2298
http://doi.org/10.29945/SEASSR.202205_8(1).0011
Book Review / Ulasan Buku

Interactional Orderliness and Disorderliness in the
Malaysian Parliament, David Yoong. UM Press, Kuala
Lumpur (2019); 377 pp. ISBN: 978-967-488-021

Philip Koh Tong Ngee
Adjunct Professor

Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur,
and Adjunct Professor, School of Business,
Monash University Malaysia.
Email: philip.koh@mkp.com.my

David Yoong’s book is based on his Ph.D. thesis submitted to La
Trobe University in Australia in 2010. This book merits attention as a
scholarly contribution to the area of discourse analysis situating it in
a significant institution, i.e. the Malaysian Parliament. As the author
puts it, “The Malaysian Parliament is a unique site of interaction
because it is an institution of power …MPs voted into power by the
people in the General Elections …must quickly familiarize themselves
with parliamentary customs and interactional practices.”
Malaysia’s uniqueness does not mean that her Legislative assembly
debates and question time are exceptional when compared with
Commonwealth. David Yoong’s book itself provides examples of
rude exchanges and un-parliamentary language. This suggests that as
a site for investigation of interaction power hierarchies, it permits a
discourse analysis approach to make a contribution to understanding
the working of an important institution.
What is classified as IOD (Interactional Orderliness and
Disorderliness) can be best illustrated in a Speaker’s encounter
with unparliamentary language in the Parliament. An ex-Speaker
once apprised this reviewer that some unparliamentary language

Submitted November 2022 Revised March 2023 Published May 2023