Tempers flared in Parliament last week as the Opposition Leader Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi was kicked out for a day. The scenes that led to this are being shared online.

The Speaker of the House Papalii Lio Masipau got onto his feet and pointed at Tuilaepa furiously. This was short of scenes from an Asian parliament where parliamentarians ended up throwing punches and dishing out karate kicks.

Papalii was clearly angry and it seemed that he had lost his cool. This is unlike how a Speaker should behave in Parliament.

The speaker presides over the House's debates, determining which members may speak and which amendments are selected for consideration. The speaker is also responsible for maintaining order during debate, and may punish members who break the rules of the House.

It is imperative that the speaker always maintain a cool head in parliament and not be swayed by emotions, which is a hard thing to do. When presiding over the House matters, the Speaker must be impartial irrespective of which political party he belongs to.

While the Speaker was furious, the blame equally had to go to the M.P. for Safata No.1, Leaana Ronnie Posini for asking an absurd question.

This is when the ruckus in parliament started. He questioned why elderly people were not allowed to use the front row section reserved for business class and premium economy.

There were also assumptions that Fiji Airways and Air New Zealand made millions of dollars of profit by just carting Samoans and insinuations that if Samoa still had an airline then they would have made this many millions.

Following this exchange, the Speaker tried to solve the matter. Tuilaepa interrupted, telling the Speaker he had a matter to ask him.

Papalii told the Opposition Leader he would not permit him to interrupt. But Tuilaepa continued to speak over the Speaker saying that any member should be allowed to interrupt on a point of seeking clarification and this has always been the practice.

Papalii fired back at Tuilaepa telling him that he does not make orders to the chair and subsequently stood up ordering the leader to sit down.

The Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, La’auli Leuatea Schmidt intervened saying the Opposition Leader continuously raised his voice and was rude to the chair while the country listened.

He then moved a motion to have the Opposition Leader removed from the House which was quickly seconded by the Deputy Prime Minister and other Cabinet Ministers.

This should never have happened. The Parliament session that is currently on deals with the national budget. The matters that are raised and speeches that are made should relate to the budget. There should be criticism and appraisals on how money has to be used by the government.

We are watching MPs showing that they do not understand the budget and are bringing in unrelated topics. Anyone presiding over such delirious arguments is bound to get frustrated but that does not mean they lose their composure.

Why are not the MPs asking questions related to taxation issues, increases in food prices, how the budget will help the people have a larger shopping basket, how more children can be helped to stay in school, and how the teacher and doctor shortages would be addressed?

There are more useful things to talk about than elderly passengers not getting front-row seats. The MPs must discuss the budget properly before it is passed because that document will impact the lives of thousands.

From the outside, it looks as if some MPs do not understand the budget. The budget estimates and the fiscal policies must have been distributed to all MPs to look at and understand. The Opposition as a party should assign particular sections of the budget to each of their members so there can be constructive debate in parliament.

It seems that some MPs are speaking just for the sake of covering the time they have been assigned and in doing so, bring in matters not suited to the current sitting.

Hopefully, the parliament debate this week will be constructive and cooler heads prevail. Do it for the people who have voted you in.