Opposition leader: Perak MB's haste due to 'no-confidence' motion

PERAK DUN | The Perak opposition leader today accused Menteri Besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu of attempting to remove Ngeh Khoo Ham as the legislative assembly speaker to prevent a motion of no-confidence from being tabled.

In a statement today, Abdul Aziz Bari (above), who is the Tebing Tinggi lawmaker, in offering his perspective of the tumultuous sitting this morning, claimed that Faizal had attempted to set aside the agenda of the sitting in order to secure Ngeh's removal.

"This was indeed shocking as Ngeh already announced that he would do so," said Abdul Aziz.

According to Abdul Aziz, Faizal instructed the sergeant-at-arms to remove Ngeh from his chair, to which the latter resisted.

"This had resulted in Ngeh reminding them he was still a speaker (at the time)... Ngeh touched on motions of no-confidence against Faizal as the menteri besar.

"It is believed that he (Faizal) acted to 'merampas Dewan' (take over the House) to prevent the motions from being brought up," he said.

Abdul Aziz, however, opined that Umno might no longer be in favour of the no-confidence motions as Faizal had appointed another three Umno lawmakers to his cabinet this morning.

Three motions

Currently, Faizal's cabinet consists of three Bersatu members, two from PAS and six from Umno. Umno controls the largest bloc in the state assembly with 24 out of the 59 seats.

Eventually, the Perikatan Nasional backbenchers relented and allowed Ngeh to read out his speech before bowing out.

Earlier today, Ngeh (below) told the press after stepping down that he received three motions of no-confidence against Faizal.

None of these motions made it to the floor as only the royal address and Ngeh's speech took place before he called for an adjournment.

Two of three motions also mooted former menteri besar Zambry Abdul Kadir and Perak Umno chief Saarani Mohamad to be appointed as the new menteri besar respectively, he said.

Ngeh, however, stopped short of revealing who purportedly filed the notice for the motions.

"So, the menteri besar was worried and allocated three remaining exco seats to Umno," he said.

"The menteri besar is merely a puppet because both Umno and PAS control more (state seats than Bersatu)." - Mkini