Could Harapan miss out on electing its own speaker?

Pakatan Harapan may not get its choice for speaker when the Dewan Rakyat commences its 14th session next Monday. This is because the new ruling coalition may have missed the two-week deadline for submitting their nomination.

Theoretically, Umno could have quietly nominated their own candidate. There is nothing to preclude the party from even nominating ousted prime minister Najib Abdul Razak to be speaker of the lower house, as he is an elected MP.

If he is the only candidate nominated then he automatically becomes the speaker automatically. Likewise, there is nothing to preclude Pakatan Harapan from nominating Anwar Ibrahim.

If no party submits their nominations within the 14-working day deadline, then there might be a constitutional crisis. The lower house cannot sit without a speaker, and the 222 newly elected MPs cannot be sworn in.

Further confounding the situation, if the gridlock is not resolved within 24 hours, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong may not be able to deliver his royal address the following day. Hence there might not be any business for Parliament to conduct. It would be stuck in an unprecedented embarrassing situation.

Of course, the remedy would be to remove the newly-elected speaker from the position, possibly through a vote of no confidence. But then the damage would have already been inflicted on Harapan.

According to the official Parliament portal, the speaker of the lower house, like the speaker of the upper house, is elected in accordance with Article 57(1) of the Federal Constitution. The candidate need not be an elected member of the house, meaning that anyone can be nominated. Accordingly, many names have already been tossed up.

The constitution is silent as to the procedures for electing a speaker, but Article 62 (1) states that “Subject to the provisions of this constitution and of federal law, each house of Parliament shall regulate its own procedure.” 

Missed deadline? 

Dewan Rakyat secretary, Roosme Hamzah, who presides over the election of the speaker, confirmed that the candidate’s nomination should be received 14 days before the swearing in. 

Roosme did not indicate whether nominations have been submitted, nor whether last-minute nominations would be accommodated. What she did say is that house rules dictate that the first order of business is a motion on the appointment of the speaker.

“That’s the first order, only then the speaker takes over to ensure the rest take their oath.

“After the rest of members take their oaths, a motion for the appointment of the two deputy speakers should follow suit,” she said.

The speaker of the Dewan Rakyat is the presiding officer of the lower house. He – the speaker has always been male since 1959 – has extensive and even excessive powers.

This includes imposing limits on the posing of supplementary questions during Question Time – an important procedure for the legislature to examine the government's actions – the power to restrict the tabling of questions for Question Time, and the power to amend written copies of speeches made by members of the house before they are given verbally.

As witnessed when Pandikar Amin Mulia (picture, above) was the speaker, he can even disallow emergency motions for debate, like the ones relating to the alleged 1MDB corruption and money laundering scandal, the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder, or the purchase of overpriced French Scorpene submarines.

Since the first parliament in 1959, all candidates for the speaker’s position were returned unopposed, and all were Umno lawmakers.

There have only been two occasions where the opposition fielded their own candidate to be put to a vote count. In 2004, Tan Seng Giaw was nominated by DAP, followed by PKR nominating its candidate in 2013. Both lost by a wide margin.

Something amiss 

Something is amiss in the ruling Harapan regime as no one – until yesterday at least – seemed to be in the know as to who their preferred candidate is, or whether the required nomination has been submitted to Parliament.

As late as six days after nominations closed on July 2, PKR president and Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said that a “high-level meeting” was going to be held to decide the final list of candidates for Dewan Rakyat speaker.

She added that the initial list of candidates from the party had been submitted to Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for review.

This implies that Harapan had, at its highest level, not discussed or finalised its candidate when nomination officially closed, meaning that it may have shot itself in the foot. With each passing day, there seem to be more names thrown into the hat.

Initially, the frontrunners seemed to be former Umno minister Rais Yatim, former Selangor state assembly speaker Hannah Yeoh, and Institutional Reforms Committee member Ambiga Sreenevasan (picture, above).

Yeoh is out of the race as she has already been appointed a deputy minister, while Ambiga has not shown interest. Rais has indicated that he would accept the post ifnominated and said he would view it as a national service. But he also said he had not received any "signal" about his nomination.

The Pakatan Harapan manifesto, however, states that the speaker would be chosen from among elected representatives – which disqualifies Rais.

The Star speculated yesterday that PKR parliamentary whip Johari Abdul is set to become the new Dewan Rakyat speaker. But did the party submit his nomination in time? Unlikely.

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BOB TEOH is a media analyst and a readers’ advocate. -Mkini