Rep kicked out for grilling CM on Jonker Walk

A DAP representative received the marching orders when he grilled the Malacca chief minister in the state assembly on whether the initial plan to close the popular Jonker Walk was an act of political retaliation.

When contacted, first term Kota Laksamana state assemblyperson Lai Kuen Ban said Idris Harun had avoided answering the query during Question Time.

"So I stood up and demanded for an answer - whether it was really political revenge because he was reported by the media as saying that the decision was due to the people supporting DAP in the 13th general election.

"The chief minister then denied it and said he never said such a thing," Lai added.

He said he then produced a newspaper clipping of the report and told the chief minister that this was in the Chinese press.

"When I said this, he got very angry and replied that whichever newspaper that reported this was a rubbish newspaper," he said.

This was followed by demands from the BN side for Lau to be removed from the house.

"The BN side then proposed and seconded for me to be thrown out for supposedly reading out a news article that was not related to the topic being discussed," Lai said.

Lai complied only after threat to suspend him 

He said he did not read out the article and had refused to budge from the house but later decided to comply as the speaker threatened to suspend him for more than a day.

Shortly before Lai's ejection, Ayer Keroh state assemblyperson Khoo Poay Tiong told the house that Idris should have denied the report when it was first published if it was untrue.

"But it's been more than three months and he claimed that he was not aware about it," Khoo told Malaysiakini when contacted.

Idris had reportedly said DAP was opposed to the closure of Jonker Street for the night market when it was first mooted 13 years ago and since the people there had chosen DAP, he would fulfill DAP's wishes and close it down.

The report first appeared in Kwong Wah Daily and was later picked up by several other media.

This attracted intervention from the federal government in which Tourism Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz advised against the closure and Idris later claimed that the plan was merely a test run to see if traffic could run more smoothly.

However, the "traffic test-run" never happened as both DAP and MCA supporters had took it upon themselves to seal off Jonker Street on weekends for the night market to continue.

Since then, the Malacca state government appeared to have given up on its attempts to shut down the night market.

DAP had said that it was opposed to the project 13 years ago due to poor planning and consultation but is now in support of the night market which has become a major tourist attraction in the state.