‘Bowing to Umno’ Speaker draws flak

Pakatan Rakyat MPs blasted Pandikar Amin Mulia for not listening to them and for pushing the PSC report through without a debate.

KUALA LUMPUR: Dewan Rakyat Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia has come under fire for approving the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) report on electoral reforms without debate.

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim also condemned Pandikar for not listening to Pakatan Rakyat’s challenge with regard to attaching a minority report.

“It has been allowed in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and Jamaica. He (Pandikar) does not want to allow for a discussion.

“He challenged us three times to come up with a precedent. When we raised this, he didn’t want to listen,” the PKR Permatang Pauh MP told a press conference in Parliament.

Anwar also accused Umno of having a hand in the matter, and suggested that the Speaker was following the ruling party’s demands.

“For me, it clearly shows arrogance (by the Speaker, who) doesn’t want to hear or give space for us to explain, and bows to Umno’s demands,” he said.

Earlier this morning, Pakatan MPs tried to debate a motion to attach a minority report to the PSC’s report on electoral reforms.

However, Pandikar said that there was no precedent in any Parliament within the Commonwealth that allowed for this.

At the time, he cited New Zealand parliamentary proceedings as proof for his claim but Pakatan MPs claimed that the Speaker was being selective in his examples.

The minority report contained a detailed explanation on fundamental issues, including that of a allegedly tainted electoral roll.

These included the 42,000-plus voters who were not listed in the National Registration Department and Mimos’s (Malaysian Institute of Microelectric Systems) detection of 80,000 voters with similar addresses.

Today, a clearly moody Pandikar claimed that the opposition was not interested in debating the results of the PSC. He then called for a vote, which saw Barisan Nasional MPs voting in favour.

‘Taskforce registering foreigners’

Pakatan’s three PSC members – Gombak MP (PKR) Azmin Ali, Kuala Krai MP (PAS) Hatta Ramli and Rasah MP (DAP) Anthony Loke – said that the committee was a failure because it did not meet its objectives after six months of meetings and public inquiries.

The nine-member PSC also consisted of five BN MPs and one Independent MP.

The Pakatan MPs claimed that adding the minority report was rejected by the PSC during its final meeting on March 28.

“We asked for the report [to be added], but we were not allowed to present [it]. It was rejected during the final meeting,” said Loke.

During the press conference, a disappointed Pokok Sena MP (PAS) Mahfuz Omar said that he had proof of a “taskforce” involved in registering foreigners into the electoral roll.

Adding that he was not given a chance to debate this today, he vowed to raise the matter again tomorrow.

Meanwhile, PSC chairman Maximus Johnity Ongkili said that there was no need for a minority report as Pakatan’s dissent was already recorded in the original report.

He added that EC was in the midst of cleaning its electoral roll. Postal votes, he said, was only for soldiers serving on Malaysia’s borders. Other soldiers, he said, would have earlier voting periods instead.