Opposition calls Speaker an Umno tool

By Patrick Lee

KUALA LUMPUR: Pakatan Rakyat MPs condemned Dewan Rakyat Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia for siding with Umno against the opposition in today's quadruple suspension.

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim (Permatang Pauh-PKR) said that Pandikar Amin had not given him a chance to defend himself after the motion to suspend him was first read out.

“I did stand up (to debate) but he (the Speaker) said no one wants to debate. (He said) the same thing again before finally asking for the votes to be collected,” Anwar said at Parliament lobby today.

Blaming Umno for influencing the Speaker's decision, Anwar said that Pandikar Amin was guilty of misleading the House with his comments.

“He did not observe the rules and in fact tried to mislead the House by saying that he was just an observer and was not involved in the proceedings of the Rights and Priviliges Committee,” said Anwar.

The Permatang Pauh MP also expressed surprise over Pandikar Amin's actions as he had known the latter to be “reasonably fair and quite impartial” in person.

The motion to suspend Anwar was passed after Pandikar Amin appeared to call for a vote without moving into a debate. This caused opposition MPs to vehemently protest the decision, creating chaos in the House.

Written notes

In the middle of this, Pandikar Amin was also seen receiving written notes from an unknown source. Later on, the Speaker told the House that he would invoke Standing Order 44 and suspend opposition MPs who did not comply with his orders to remain silent.

In protest to the Speaker's threat, the opposition MPs staged a walkout. Karpal Singh (Bukit Gelugor-DAP) said that Pandikar Amin's actions left Pakatan no choice but to withdraw.

“We can’t defend ourselves in front of somebody who is directly involved in the proceedings in both Parliament and as chairman of the committee,” Karpal said.

“The Speaker ought to be ashamed of himself as he is one of the worst Speakers we’ve ever had. There is no doubt that the Speaker has lost his moral authority to chair the proceedings."

Nasharuddin Mat Isa (Bachok-PAS) said that the Speaker was guilty of receiving instructions from Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Abdul Aziz.

"We saw the exchange of notes from the minister’s table to the Speaker. It clearly shows that the Speaker failed to fulfil his duty because he is receiving instructions from BN,” he said, adding that one of these directives was to issue Standing Order 44.

Political career

Asked if the suspension would affect his political career, Anwar disagreed. “When (Karpal) was suspended (in September 2004), it did not affect him. In fact, he came out stronger. Similarly, some of us have been suspended before and now we have to move on,” he said.

Karpal added that the suspensions would backfire against the BN and work in Pakatan Rakyat's favour.

“The raykat will not accept it. We will go to the ground to explain the reasons and the circumstances under which we were suspended,” he said.

He also said that Pakatan's lawmakers would be taking the suspension matter to court.

“We will take it to court. The action of the Speaker is so blatant that it cannot be in anyway defended. We want a judicial ruling on that so we can’t let him get away with this. We don’t want this to become a precedent in the future,” he said.

Anwar also echoed Karpal's sentiment on bringing the matter before the judiciary. However, he appeared doubtful of the idea.

“There is that avenue. There is a precedent of the relevant judgments, but I don’t see how we can proceed in maintaining the manner in which the Speaker was conducting himself as unprofessional, biased and losing moral authority,” he said.