The Johari Abdul-for-speaker fiasco

The Pakatan Harapan leadership council will meet at 2.30pm this afternoon to go over the issue of who is to become speaker of the federal legislature and who are to be the deputies.

Yesterday, PKR MP for Sungai Petani Johari Abdul was touted as the Harapan nomineefor speaker. Two MPs from DAP were to be nominees for the two posts of deputy speaker.

But Johari cannot be nominated by Harapan for speaker of the 14th Parliament whose opening session is scheduled for next week.

This is because in addition to being MP for Sungai Petani, the three-term parliamentarian is also the state assemblyperson for Gurun.

Article 57(4) of the Federal Constitution holds that Johari can only be nominated for speaker if he resigns from his state seat.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has informed his subordinates that Johari cannot be nominated as speaker because of constitutional stipulations.

This is because a Johari resignation would trigger a by-election in Kedah which Harapan would surely not want to risk. The ruling coalition controls 18 seats in the state assembly and the opposition, composed of PAS (15) and BN (3), are in a dead heat with them.

The matter of the speakership had become unexpectedly contentious because of the rivalry between PKR and DAP to place their reps in the post.

Both parties, having the largest (PKR with 47) and second largest (DAP with 42) number of MPs respectively in Parliament, feel hard done by on account of what they see as the disproportionate allocation of ministerships in the federal cabinet.

Both have six ministers each, one more than each of their fellow Harapan components Bersatu and Amanah, in spite of their lower haul of federal seats – the former with 13 and the latter with 11.

The issue of disparity in the distribution of ministerships has been exacerbated by the failure of DAP to gain a minister's post for its Perak state chief, Nga Kor Ming, who was promised a cabinet post by party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng if he beat Gerakan president Mah for the parliamentary seat of Teluk Intan.

Moreover, DAP MP for Stampin and head of its Sarawak chapter, Chong Chieng Jen, had only been allocated a deputy minister's post, further accentuating the grievances of the party in respect of cabinet posts in the federal government.

Jockeying for posts

These developments rendered fraught the jockeying among the Pakatan components for the posts of speaker of Parliament and his deputies.

Mahathir had plumped for retired Court of Appeal judge Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof, a former PAS member and candidate in the 1999 general election, who was elevated to the bench early last decade. Ariff is highly regarded in the legal and judicial circles for his integrity and competence.

Mahathir justified his choice on the basis that Ariff's calibre would facilitate the reforms and changes envisaged by the prime minister.

However, both DAP and PKR argued that nominations for the posts be from among Harapan MPs, as outlined in the coalition's manifesto.

DAP proposed party adviser Lim Kit Siang and PKR countered by nominating Nurul Izzah Anwar, both propositions made in blithe ignorance of the candidates' blood ties respectively to cabinet ministers Lim Guan Eng and Deputy Prime Minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Finally, the wrangling ended with PKR winning support for Johari as speaker and DAP settling for two of their MPs for the two posts of deputy speaker.

DAP rationalised the nomination of two of their MPs for the deputy speaker posts by saying that one nominee would be from Borneo, as if the distant geography of the one would excuse the point about the two being from the same party.

The tangle that developed over the PKR nomination of Johari as speaker was engendered by the party's myopic insistence on positioning individuals allied to one camp in the factional strife within it for election in seats, at federal and state levels, considered winnable and as potential springboards for their nominees to rise in government and party.

Johari's nomination for a Kedah state seat was to position him to be menteri besar of Kedah should PKR gain the most number of seats in the legislature.

The Kedah state government is headed by Bersatu deputy president Mukhriz Mahathir.

He only just made it to the post because PKR president Wan Azizah had written to the Kedah palace after the polls on May 9 to nominate Johari as MB.

This move was at variance to a tacit understanding that Mukhriz would be the menteri besar if the Harapan coalition obtained a plurality in the state assembly.

In the May 9 polls, the tally of seats won were PKR 8, Bersatu 5, Amanah 3 and DAP 2.

Mukhriz did wind up as menteri besar in the end. Following a prolonged impasse, Ahmad Kassim of PKR was nominated as speaker of the legislature.

Johari's nomination by PKR for speaker of Parliament was apparent compensation for him over his party's failure to get him into the MB's post in Kedah.

Not an edifying passage for a government trying to be much better than its discredited predecessor.

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TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for more than four decades. A sobering discovery has been that those who protest the loudest tend to replicate the faults they revile in others. -Mkini