Pundits: Speaker Yeoh should be impartial, avoid executive matters

Pundits have chastised Selangor state legislative assembly speaker Hannah Yeoh for interfering in executive matters by rebuking BN in regards to the state non-Muslim houses of worship building guidelines controversy.

Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) chief executive Wan Saiful Wan Jan said Yeoh should have been impartial.

"As speaker, she should know that she has to be impartial at all times, not just during sitting.

"It is not her job to defend the state government. Her role is to ensure the government is taken to task fairly in the legislative assembly," Wan Saiful told Malaysiakini.

Fellow pundit Josh Hong voiced similar concerns. He said the opposition often criticised speakers who are BN members for being impartial, and thus must practice the same standards

"Why can't we apply the same standards, the same requirements when its comes to opposition governments in Selangor and Penang.

"We need to have higher standards for politicians on both sides," Hong said.

Yeoh yesterday pointed out that contentious clauses on the distance and height limitations in Selangor's manual guideline and planning standard restricting non-Muslim places of worship were present in similar documents for other states.

A parliamentary tradition

The Selangor speaker, who is also Subang Jaya assemblyperson, said similar guidelines were also adopted in the BN-controlled states of Pahang, Terengganu and Perlis.

Both Wan Saiful and Hong cited British parliament traditions, in which speakers would have to quit their respective parties in order to be impartial.

Bersih chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah however defended Yeoh's right to comment on the guidelines issue.

"I feel it's okay for her to comment. Besides being a speaker she's an assemblyperson and part of the committee looking into the guidelines," Maria said.

She was referring to the Selangor DAP sub-committee set up to assist the Selangor government in reviewing the guidelines.

Malaysiakini is currently attempting to contact Yeoh for comments.- Mkini