Sivarasa ejected from Parliament

The Speaker tells the Subang MP that he cannot bring up the Jalan P Ramlee temple issue as it has already been debated in Parliament.

UPDATED

KUALA LUMPUR: Subang MP R Sivarasa was thrown out of Parliament today for bringing up the demolition of part of the 100-year-old Sri Muneswarar Kaliyamman temple in Jalan P Ramlee.

Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia advised Sivarasa to move on to another topic as the temple issue had already been debated in Parliament.

However, Sivarasa refused to budge on the matter and questioned the Speaker’s partiality towards the ruling Barisan Nasional.

The speaker then invoked Rule Order 44, and suspended Sivarasa from the parliament session for two days.

When met outside Parliament, Sivarasa told reporters that he was simply “putting on record the solution to the problem”.

“I stood up to speak about the temple demolition but the Speaker stopped me immediately.

“I thought he was referring to the breaching of standing order as I was only putting on record the solution to the problem.

“I asked the Speaker to stop interrupting, but he kept saying that this matter had already been raised by (Padang Serai MP N) Surendran,” he added.

Sivarasa insisted that Pandikar should have allowed him to speak, as he was a representative of the people.

“I just wanted to get my point across. I used the temple issue as a start to explain my point.

“I wanted to know why the DBKL (Kuala Lumpur City Council) had approved the development at the site when they knew there was a temple there. That was the question,” he added.

Sivarasa said Pandikar kept interrupting his speech which was a behaviour unfit for a Speaker.

He said the Speaker was being bias and appeared to be emotional and not objective.

Sivarasa is suspended from the Dewan Rakyat for two days.

On Nov 12, Surendran was thrown out of parliament for bringing up an emergency motion on the demolition of the temple.

He cited Rule of Order 18.1 and wanted to read out the motion but was stopped by the Pandikar.

The Speaker stated that in order to invoke Rule Order 18.1, the matter should be an urgent that involved national issues.

The Parliament suspended Surendran for six months for insulting Pandikar amid strong criticism that the motion is illegal and against the procedure.