Ka Siong: I'm not a fan of walkouts, but we had to send a message

Conceding that he is not a big fan of walkouts, MCA deputy president Wee Ka Siong, however, said opposition MPs had to do so this morning to send a message across.

The Ayer Hitam lawmaker said the walkout was not staged in protest over the choice of the Dewan Rakyat speaker, Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof.

“Rather, it is crucial for us to highlight that the Standing Order 4(1) had not been followed,” he added in a Facebook post this evening.

However, Wee said that the opposition MPs who tried to raise a point of order about this were ignored.

“We are fully aware that if the opposition MPs raised the Standing Order only after the secretary of the Dewan Rakyat declared that 'the Speaker of the House is elected', the ruling party will then say, 'It's too late to raise the point of order and it should have been raised before the speaker is elected'.

“Therefore, the opposition MPs have no choice but to walk out from the Parliament House as a sign of protest that the House procedures have not been rightly followed,” he added.

Wee noted how on July 10, Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail revealed that Pakatan Harapan only decided on the choice of speaker at the last minute on July 9.

Therefore, he said it would be impossible to meet the 14-day notice period under the Standing Order since the letter should have been sent on July 2 at the latest.

“While I am not a big fan of walk-outs, this sign of protest is important as the parliament is the highest body in our country and signals whether or not the new government will follow the rule of law in their governance.

“We also want to send a message that future parliament sessions must follow all Standing Orders and that opposition MPs' calls for the point of orders should not be ignored,” he added.

Differing claims on dates

Wee also shared a Malaysiakini article dated July 14, which quoted de facto law minister Liew Vui Keong as claiming that Harapan submitted its candidate for the speaker post on July 2.

The article noted the contradiction between this claim and various media reports on the matter as well as Wan Azizah's remarks.

On July 8, Wan Azizah, who is also PKR president, said her party had only met that day to discuss who should be the speaker, and that a high-level Harapan meeting would be held soon.

Wan Azizah also said that a name would need to be submitted "a week" before Parliament convenes, instead of two weeks as stated by the Standing Order.

She later confirmed that the Harapan meeting was held on July 9, and that the coalition had decided on one name.

It was later reported that Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul was the coalition’s pick for the role of speaker.

However, Harapan later scrapped its plan to name Johari, after it was pointed out that the Federal Constitution required him to give up his Gurun state seat in Kedah.

This would put the Kedah government in a precarious situation as Harapan now controls only 18 seats in the state assembly, while PAS and Umno also control 18 seats.

This afternoon, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad insisted Ariff's name was submitted to the House on July 2, and therefore was in compliance with the Standing Order.

"No, no backdating. It (the letter) was prepared earlier, so when I signed, I put the date (in)," he added. - Mkini