Saturday 9 May 2009

UPDATED! Perak Pakatan Rakyat ADUNs Should NOT Legitimise Future Sittings of the Perak State Assembly by their Attendance

After what transpired on 7th May 2009 in the Perak State Legislative Assembly, parliamentary democracy as we know and as we had held sacred in our hearts, is finished....kaput...dihapuskan..destroyed.... DEAD!

Our sacred institution of democracy was horribly debased by the uninvited presence of scores of police and Special Branch officers WITHIN the Assembly hall. They were seen abusing and rough-handling elected representatives of the people right INSIDE the hall.

Watch This Video -
The Forced Removal of Speaker Sivakumar by the POLICE May 7, 2009, 2.45 pm

And the ultimate insult to the House and to our sense of decency, was the brutish removal of the House Speaker Sivakumar from the chair with the police and Special Branch officers literally dragging him out of the hall. In addition, several elected people's representatives were seen being manhandled to the ground by the police and the Special Branch officers.

The swearing-in and installation of "new" Speaker was a complete farce. Speaker Sivakumar was still on the chair when the deputy speaker, the former DAP turned BN-friendly independent, Hee Yit Foong, took upon herself to declare from the floor that she had just "removed" Sivakumar as the Speaker. Instead of Hee Yit Foong, being theDeputy Speaker, taking over the Speaker's role , the UMNO/BN ADUNs decided to install another Indian from MIC, R. Ganesan, to replace Sivakumar.

Not surprisingly on that cue, the police and the Special Branch together with the UMNO/BN ADUNs went up to Speaker's chair and physically dragged Sivakumar out of the Assembly Hall and then escorted R. Ganesan to the Speaker's table.

The Perak Assembly now has a "new" Speaker, R. Ganesan who in reality is an "un-elected" and a REJECTED politician. He was rejected by voters in the Sungkai constituency in the March 2008 general election. Yet despite R. Ganesan's rejection, UMNO/BN brought him to be made a Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.

The situation in Perak has come to this: Two Speakers of the House and two Menteri Besars.

As far as Perakians and Malaysians in general are concerned, and under the constitution, Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin is still the rightful Menteri Besar. Perakians have NOT accepted, except for the Perak Palace and the UMNO-led Federal Government, Datuk Seri Zambry as the legitimate Menteri Besar of Perak.

Malaysians have long discounted any decision of the Malaysian Judiciary on the Perak Crisis. They have lost the trust and confidence in the Malaysian judiciary to adjudicate according to the constitution and law of the country. Decisions of the Federal Court, the highest court in the land, on the Perak Crisis were swallowed with several tablespoons of salt, with Malaysians ever mindful that the Chief Judge of Malaysia, Tan Sri Zaki Azmi, as loyal member of UMNO, has deep ties with UMNO, including holding several key positions eg Legal Advisor Committee Chairman in UMNO.

Read here and here and here and here and here what Malaysians generally think on the 7 May 2009 fiasco.

The question Malaysians are asking :
What Now?

Should it be business as usual for the Pakatan Rakyat ADUNs in the coming weeks and months?
It is our view that firstly, Pakatan Rakyat ADUNs should NOT be seen to condone the actions of the UMNO/BN and the police in the Legislative Assembly. The presence of the police in the august hall is already bad enough, let alone engaged in physically dragging by force Speaker Sivakumar out of the hall. Undoubtedly, the Perak Legislative Assembly as a sacred institution of democracy was severely degraded by the presence of scores of the police and the Special Branch in the august hall itself.

Secondly, Sivakumar was unconstitutionally removed from the Hall and R. Ganesan was unconstitutionally installed as a "new" Speaker.

As such, we say, Pakatan Rakyat ADUNs should not give legitimacy to the Perak State Assembly as long as the "new" Speaker is chairing the proceedings.

We propose the following courses of action for the Pakatan Rakyat ADUNs:
  1. In the next sitting of the Assembly, Sivakumar should reclaim the chair of the Speaker of the House since he was removed unconstitutionally and by force. R Ganesan cannot be recognised constitutionally as having replaced Sivakumar who was duly apppointed under the constitution as the Speaker of the House.

  2. Failure to achieve that, ALL Pakatan Rakyat ADUNs should walk out en mass from the Assembly.

  3. ALL Pakatan Rakyat ADUNs should then on BOYCOTT all sittings of the Perak State Assembly.

  4. Each Pakatan Rakyat should return to their constituency to explain to the voters the reasons for their action not to sit in the State Assembly . There are other better ways to serve their constituencies, knowing full well a BN-led Government would not be helpful to Pakatan constituencies, as these recent turn of events have clearly shown.
There is NO reason why this sham should be permitted to continue. The mandate of the people is paramount. And the crisis can only end by the vote of the people, not by brute force of the police nor by the prejudiced decision of the UMNO-friendly Judiciary.

We say, if UMNO/BN wants to rule Perak by stealth and by force, Pakatan Rakyat should NOT be seen as a party to it.

Malaysians had it enough and had tolerated once too often such arrogance use of power and use of force by UMNO/BN.

Malaysians and Perakians should be willing to pay whatever price for the Pakatan Rakyat's boycott of the Perak State Legislative Assembly, all in the name of democracy, common decency and for the sake of upholding the constitution of our beloved country.


RELATED ARTICLE

Deputy Speaker Hee Yit Foong LIED When She Said She Did Not Use a Pepper Spray in the State Assembly on 7 May 2009



It IS a Pepper Spray

Read here for more

Hee said that she pointed her hotel key-chain, not a pepper spray canister against Yew Tian Hoe (DAP-Aulong),

"It is just a key-chain. 'Hati mereka ada hantu' (They have a guilty conscience)," she said, adding that she is suffering body aches from the scuffles.

However, a clip taken during the assembly yesterday did show Hee pointing what appeared to be a pepper spray canister at Yew (see above)


Perak State Secretary Conspired with UMNO/BN for Chaos in State Assembly

Read here for more

Ousted Perak Assembly Speaker V. Sivakumar accused the State Secretary of conspiring with the Barisan to cause his downfall during the proceedings that saw him being replaced by MIC’s Datuk R. Ganesan.
]
Sivakumar hurled criticism at:

  • the switching off of his microphone;

  • policemen and outsiders being allowed into the hall;

  • various officials refusing his orders; and

  • pressmen being restricted from covering the event.

    What is all this? This shows there was an agenda to unseat the Speaker. If this is not a conspiracy, I don’t know what is,” he told a press conference at Wisma DAP here yesterday.

    Sivakumar issued a statement later, saying that he had lodged a police report about being assaulted.

    He said a group of people who were without passes had roughed him up while he was seated in the Speaker’s chair, he said.

    Although I tried to warn them not to prevent me from carrying out my duties, the men choked and dragged me across the floor. I was forcefully brought outside the hall. After that, I was confined in a room nearby for more than an hour,” he said

    Even the Sergeant-at-Arms was not spared as Sivakumar accused the man of practising double standards and refusing to obey his orders.


    PRESS STATEMENT

    by

    DATO’ NGEH KOO HAM
    Senior Exco Member, Pakatan Rakyat Perak State Government
    /DAP Perak Chairman
    Dato’ Seri Zambry Bin Abdul Kadir and BN elected representatives break the oath of office by colluding with the police and outsiders to forcibly take over the State Assembly and therefore must resign

    All elected representatives of the Perak State Assembly took the oath of office to defend the independence of the State Assembly and the Perak State Constitution when they were first sworn in as State Assemblymen and women of the Perak State Assembly.

    The need to have the separation of powers between the legislature and the executive is fundamental to our democratic system.

    No police or army can be allowed to enter the sacred house of the legislature. Zambry and BN elected representatives had allowed the police to take over the Perak State Assembly for the sake of retaining their power instead of going back to the people for a fresh mandate.

    The people must be vigilant and demand for the resignation of Dato’ Seri Zambry Bin Abdul Kadir and the BN elected representatives less we become a police state very soon. The people must also demand that the State Assembly be dissolved so that the rights to chose the State Government be reverted back to the people to solve the present impasse.

    The State Secretary Dato’ Dr Abdul Rahman Bin Hashim is also involved in the scheme to take over the State Assembly by force by allowing the police to enter the State Secretariat Building which house the State Assembly.

    The take over of the State Assembly by force was clearly preplanned as the police personnel came from Bukit Aman, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Kedah, Kelantan and Kuantan.

    The independence of the Perak State Assembly is totally lost when we allow the police, a Federal department to take control of the Assembly by force.

8 comments:

Yap Chong Yee said...

"ALL Pakatan Rakyat ADUNs should then on BOYCOTT all sittings of the Perak State Assembly."

I think to boycott all sittings of the legislative Assembly by the ADUNS is not a good idea, because that will be interpreted as dereliction of duty and I think the voters will not see kindly to such a move.

I agree that the Aduns must demonstrate their utter disgust at this coup d'tate. I agree with all that has been written here, but that to demonstrate their disgust, the ADUNS should attend the sittings but will stage a "walk out" at every sitting; that way the UMNO GANG will be legislating on their own and thbis will generate very bad publicity going into the next Election.

However, from my perspective, what passed for the attempt to replace Speaker Siva with his pretender is null & void; that therefore has to go to court to be settled and we all know that the COURTS OF MALAYSIA are not professional and they do not respect the law, but having said that we still need to focus attention on the outrageous and gangster tactics used by the UMNO people to carry out a coup d'tate on the legitimate government of Perak. Pakatan Rakyat must not cease to focus of the people's attention by taking actions in the courts and public agitation.

There is only one caveate that Pakatan Rakyat has to bear in mind, and that is to bear in mind the public agitation must not be violent and in any way appear to look like rioting because UMNO knows that they will loose the next General Election and they will create situations that will provoke "HINDRAFF TYPE" disturbance that the government will seize on to IMPOSE EMERGENCY RULE, and that will be the end game.

Zambry did not win this May 7 round, only impunity, ignorance and Federal Government partisanship has taken physical control of the House, that is not "WINING" by any mean whatsoever. Taking physical control is not wining, because to win the status of the competing parties must be endorsed by the courts as ligitimate and this legitimacy has still to be decided by the courts.

There is no end to this political imbroglio because at every step of the way, the legitimacy of the actions of the UMNO & Zambry is legally questionable. Perak in this situation is in gridlock and there is only one way out of this nonsense. There needs to be a return to the people.

To my mind the crisis in Perak spells the end of UMNO reign, unless they again invoke Emergency rule and ultimately descend into dictatorship.

Anonymous said...

The Speaker and PR ADUNs should also set another Dewan, rent a hall somewhere, with proper assembly setups, speaker chairs, microphones, seats for government backbenchers (PR) and also for opposition (BN). Hire proper security details to prevent suspended ADUNs from attending.
Legitimize this assembly by getting that the other PR governments/assembly to liase only this legitimate Perak assembly. Get international recognition by inviting parliamentarians from overseas. PR parties will only refer to this assembly, not the the other illegitimate one. Make it format by inviting the Sultan and also the opposition members when calling for a seating. If they don't want to come, that's their problem. Use official letterheads, reelect a new secretary, with proper office. PR and PR-friendly media should help promote this legitimate assembly.

Remember, more that half of the population of Malaysia support PR, therefore this assembly will recognized more than the other one.

This can be done.

"Deep-Throat" said...

"The Perak Assembly now has a "new" Speaker, R. Ganesan who in reality is an "un-elected" and a REJECTED politician. He was rejected by voters in Kedah (Bukit Selambau) in the April by-election this year. Yet despite Ganesan's failure in Kedah to win an election, UMNO/BN brought him into Perak to be made a Speaker of the Legislative Assembly."

Obviously you have written this article guided solely by your emotions and with your brains unplugged.

R. Ganesan, the newly elected Speaker and the Ganesan contested in Bukit Selambau are not the same. The one contested in Bukit Selambau was S. Ganesan, former state assemblyman for Lunas, Kedah while R. Ganesan was formerly ADUN for Sungkai, Perak.

Anonymous said...

If BN is still incorrigble and does not change, then the best solution is for all the Perak Pakatan ADUN's resign enbloc and call for fresh byelections. This will definately put shit fright on AMENO which is now dreading to meet the people in any bye election. AMENO is fighting for time to revamp its strategic arm, the Election Commission to find new ingenious ways to cheat and commit electoral fraud.

Malaysian Unplug said...

In response to "deep throat"

Thank you for the correction on R. Ganesan

Malaysians Unplugged and Uncensored Team

Malaysian Unplug said...

In response to "Yap Chong Yee"
09 May 2009 17:37

To attend the sittings and then stage a walkout would be perceived as firstly, legitimising an unconstitutional assemby, and then be seen as disruptive.

If that is the intent, then a pre-emptive strategy should be the option of choice.

Given the arrogant use of force and misuse of public -funded state bureaucracy in partisan politics, Malaysians WILL sympathise with Pakatan Rakyat to take a "first strike" option , ie a pre-determined boycott of the sitting after the first sitting to enable Speaker Sivakumar to reclaim the Speaker's chair.

Either you strike hard to take down your opposition ,or you don't.

Pakatan Rakyat cannot be wishy-washy in this high-stake political drama where the mandate of the Perak people is being made into a political football.

Malaysians Unplugged Uncensored Team

Yap Chong Yee said...

Thank you for your quick response Malaysian Insider !

Yes, that may be so, however your response has stirred up another stirling idea and it is even hotter than hot ! If the Pakatan Rakyat can believe in my thinking that Najib is "GUN SHY" FOR ANY MORE BY ELECTIONS THEN WHY NOT PAKATAN CONTRIVE SERIAL BY ELECTIONS ONE AFTER ANOTHER ? wE KNOW THE PEOPLE OF PERAK ARE INSENSED BY THE THUGGISH BEHAVIOUR OF UMNO, THEN THEY WILL UNDERSTAND WHAT PAKATAN RAKYAT IS DOING.

The legitimacy of the goings on of the 7th of May has still to be established; however to keep up the momentum it will be strategic for Pakatan to stir up more and more losses for UMNO & Najib. I take a bet of
Rm.1/ hat if Pakatan Rakyat makes public that they (PR)will launch such a strategy then my bet is the Perak crisis will come to an end and fresh elections called. I know from what I have written that the Mahatir camp will want it to be settled for their benefit.

Nyama Chow Hee Bai said...

That is why... next time, people, make sure you vote in a properly educated person as MP. Pakatan also another one... this muka-puki.berkedut cinapek washerwoman vegetable seller type, noodle stall chap faan helper cum coffee shop drinks mixer, jamban jaga, or pasar malam underwear seller fatty-samfoo karang guni old newspaper also can become MP. For goodness sake, next time, look at their education level lah!