Nizar: BN murdering democracy

Former Perak menteri besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin has accused the BN-led state government of “murdering democracy”. He said several actions taken by the ruling elite contravened the Standing Orders of the house, he said, referring to the State Legislative Assembly sitting yesterday.

This included the one-day sitting to table and pass the RM80 million additional budget where Pakatan Rakyat was only given 15 minutes to debate the motion.

According to Nizar, the situation was a far cry from when Barisan Nasional’s Tajol Rosli Ghazali administer the state.

“It is different from when Pakatan helmed the government and also vastly different from the time when Tajol Rosli was in power.

“When Ngeh Ko Ham (Sitiawan representative) was the opposition chief, he was given three hours to speak without disturbance from Tajol Rosli,” Nizar told reporters after he was suspended and chased out of the state assembly sitting yesterday afternoon.

On his suspension, Nizar said BN Speaker R Ganesan had not referred the matter to the privileges committee before issuing the order.

“... Ganesan’s move to suspend an elected representative without first referring him to the committee is an abuse of power.

"He can only order me to leave, that's his right, but he cannot suspend me,” Nizar said.

All Pakatan assemblymen faced a hurdle: they are not only deprived of an opportunity to debate but also have to contend with a “malfunction” of their microphones, which went off when they attempted to raise a Standing Order.

A few Pakatan representatives stood up to object to Ganesan’s actions, but their voices could not be heard.

courtesy of FMT