Speaker on Home Minister’s side?: PKR wants answer

Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s claims that the Speaker and the Dewan Rakyat secretary were on his 'side’ received brickbats from PKR.

PETALING JAYA: Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s claims that he had the Dewan Rakyat Speaker and Secretary on his “side” when voting for the Prevention of Crime Act (1959) amendments in parliament last week has called into question the integrity of the Dewan Rakyat, PKR said today.

“It is a fundamental characteristic of the office of the Speaker that he must be absolutely impartial in presiding over proceedings in the Dewan Rakyat,” said PKR vice-president N Surendran in a statement today.

“Zahid’s stunning admission massively undermines national confidence in the Dewan Rakyat as the nations’s supreme law-making chamber.

“It is also a confession that Ahmad Zahid had attempted to pervert the proper functioning of the Dewan Rakyat.”

The Home Minister had said in his speech last Saturday that he pushed for cabinet approval for amendments to the PCA before tabling it in the Dewan Rakyat.

The amendments include allowing detention without trial, which the opposition and civil societies, including the Bar Council, have strongly condemned.

“I (discussed) with (minister in charge of parliamentary affairs) Shahidan Kassim so that when the time comes (for a vote), the… speaker would be on our side, the Dewan Rakyat secretary will be on our side,” Ahmad Zahid was quoted as saying.

Surendran, who is Padang Serai MP, said Ahmad Zahid had attempted to taint and undermine the civil service in order to achieve his “narrow political objectives.”

“The Dewan Rakyat Secretary is a top civil servant who should be scrupulously impartial in carrying out her duties. Impartiality of the civil service is fundamental in any properly working democracy,” he pointed out.

He urged Dewan Rakyat Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia and Dewan Rakyat Secretary Roosme Hamzah to respond to Ahmad Zahid’s allegations.

“The Malaysian public is entitled to know what really happened in the Dewan Rakyat during those crucial days of the PCA debate.”

But FMT was unable to reach either Pandikar Amin or Roosme for comment.

Meanwhile, when contacted, Deputy Dewan Rakyat Speaker Ronald Kiandee said: “Maybe (Ahmad Zahid was referring to) the running of the process according to the [standard operating procedure] of parliament.

“After all, both the Speaker and the [secretary] have no vote in parliament,” he said in a text message to FMT.