Saturday June 28, 2008
Reps keep up heat on Speaker
By HAH FOONG LIAN and CHRISTINA KOH
IPOH: It was another fiery day for Perak State assembly Speaker V. Sivakumar who not only had to handle continued heckling by Barisan Nasional assemblymen but also had a question with racial overtones thrown at him.
The first 36 minutes of Question Time yesterday saw opposition assemblymen continuously standing up and asking him for the chance to speak, and raise issues.
One by Hamidah Osman (BN-Sungai Rapat) particularly earned the wrath of the Pakatan Rakyat assemblymen when she asked whether Sivakumar “agreed to disagree” with the well-known fable of whether a snake or a man from a certain racial community should be killed first.
Heated debate: Tajol Rosli (right) trying to interject during the winding-up speech by Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin (left) at the Perak State Assembly yesterday. Nga Kor Ming (DAP-Pantai Remis) and other Pakatan assemblymen demanded Hamidah retract her words but she maintained she was merely asking if Sivakumar “agreed to disagree” with it.
Sivakumar let her off with a warning and told her not to bring up anything sensitive.
Barisan whip Datuk Seri Mohamad Tajol Rosli Ghazali (BN-Pengkalan Hulu) then asked her to retract her words, and she did.
Throughout the sitting, Datuk Dr Zambry Abd Kadir (BN-Pangkor), Datuk Seri Raja Ahmad Zainuddin Raja Omar (BN-Kubu Gajah) and Tajol Rosli continued to take Sivakumar to task over his decision to not let Raja Ahmad Zainuddin to be the first to take the floor on Thursday to debate the motion of thanks on the royal address.
Sivakumar reiterated that he saw Chang Lih Kang (PKR-Teja) stand up first and therefore called him to take the floor.
“I said after Teja, you can speak but you did not want to take the opportunity. Now sit down,” said Sivakumar.
The Speaker, whose most frequently used phrase yesterday was “sit down”, had to appeal for cooperation from the assemblymen to start the question-and-answer session.
He also had to control the House when issues on Islam and some defamatory remarks were made against a former assemblyman.
Dr Mah Hang Soon (BN-Chenderiang) also tested Sivakumar's patience when the sole MCA representative brought out a poster and gave a lengthy explanation of how PAS was committed to the setting up of an Islamic state.
When Sivakumar did not adjourn for lunch at 12.30pm, the opposition assemblymen made so much noise that they drowned out the voice of Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, who was making his winding-up speech.
The assembly adjourned sine die at 4.15pm.
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