3 Opposition MPs thrown out...

Three opposition parliamentarians were ejected from the Dewan Rakyat today for refusing to obey Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia, with the ensuing chaos leading to the sitting being suspended for the day.

The trio had questioned his ruling not to allow a minority report to be appended to the report of the parliamentary select committee (PSC) on electoral reform.

"Under Standing Order 42, when the speaker speaks, you must shut up,” Pandikar (right) told them.

‘Under Standing Order 43, the speaker's decisions cannot be questioned... and under Standing Order 44, I order Gombak (Azmin Ali), Subang (R Sivarasa) and Kuala Selangor (Dzulkefly Ahmad) to leave the Dewan.”

Pandikar had just taken over the chair from his deputy Ronald Kiandee, when he threw out the trio.  Sivarasa had stood up after the lunch break to ask Kiandee for guidance on the possibility that Pandikar was wrong in his ruling on the minority report.

Kiandee refused to entertain the request but, undeterred, Sivarasa - aided by interjections from Azmin and Dzulkefly - continued to argue the opposition case.  They cited precedent after precedent in which minority reports had been presented in other Commonwealth Parliaments.

Kiandee insisted that Pandikar's ruling was also based on precedent and accepted practice in the New Zealand Parliament and other Commonwealth legislative assemblies.

There was chaos as the opposition MPs pressed the matter even though the speaker told them there was nothing else to say, and Bung Mokhtar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) was preparing to take his turn at debating the PSC report.

Azmin then made an oblique reference to "speaker kampung”, adding that the precedents that the opposition cited were by established speakers and not one from a village.

Pandikar had earlier sarcastically remarked that he is only a "speaker kampung'"when informing them of the precedents he had researched to back his ruling.

‘Tool of Umno’ jibe

Azmin, Sivarasa and Dzulkefly did not leave the House but stood around, joined by other opposition MPs.  Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim (PKR-Permatang Pauh) then stood up directly addressing Pandikar to accuse him of being a "tool of Umno”.

Anwar also said Pandikar should apologise if he had made a mistake in his ruling.

This goaded BN parliamentarians into standing up and chanting "Keluar! Keluar!" (Get out! Get out!) referring to the ejected MPs and "Liwat! Liwat" (Sodomy! Sodomy!) to Anwar, who had recently been acquitted of a sodomy charge.

Opposition parliamentarians countered the shouts with chants of "Leave the chair! Leave the chair!" to the speaker, telling him to step down.

When his repeated appeals for the MPs to return to the debate were ignored, Pandikar decided that the PSC report did not need to be debated, as it appeared that "the opposition is uninterested" in doing so.

Raising his voice above the din from both sides of the House, he ordered a vote to be conducted. The report was passed by a majority vote and the sitting was suspended up to tomorrow.
 

The 5 recommendations in the minority report are for the EC to: 

1. Admit that it is illegal to change voters’ constituencies, and return the 31,294 affected voters to their constituencies as of the last general election within 30 days of the PSC report being tabled in Parliament; 

2. Remove 42,000 voters from the electoral roll whose citizenship cannot be confirmed by the National Registration Department (NRD) within 15 days of the report being tabled; 

3. Investigate the more than 1,000 voters older than 100 years (including one who is allegedly 159 years old) and clean the electoral roll of this within 30 days of the report being tabled; 

4. Work the NRD to check on more than 15,000 instances where the gender opf the voters conflicts with their MyKad numbers, where numbers ending with an even number is supposed to be for females, and odd numbers for males, and clean the electoral roll within 30 days of the report being tabled; and 

5. Change the status of some 45,000 spouses of police officers from postal voters to normal voters because they are not eligible to be postal voters, within 15 days of the report being tabled. - malaysiakini

The division of votes in PSC

Speaker bowed to Umno's pressure...

Peeved by the speaker’s decision to eject three Pakatan MPs from the Dewan Rakyat today, Pakatan Rakyat leaders called Pandikar Amin Mulia “Umno’s tool” for putting the final report of the parliamentary select committee (PSC) on electoral reform to a vote without debate on it.

At a press conference at the Parliament lobby, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim (PKR-Permatang Pauh) said the speaker’s action showed “arrogance”.

“He bowed to Umno’s demands... the speaker had rejected the motion (to append the minority report to it) on the basis that it had no precedent... Three times he challenged us to show him a precedent, but when we did, he did not want to listen,” said Anwar.

“They refused to endorse the minority report because it exposes the fundamental issue of a flawed electoral roll,” Anwar said.

Machang PKR MP Saifuddin Nasution (left) pointed out that it was incorrect for Pandikar to say that the minority report was not addressed before the PSC.

“It was recorded in the PSC report, on page 53, that the proposal to include the minority report was rejected after a bloc voting was done,” Saifuddin said.

Disappointed as well, Pokok Sena MP Mahfuz Omar from PAS complained of not getting the chance to reveal attempts at offering foreigners citizenship for votes.

Mahfuz said he had with him a report compiled by a task force set up by PAS to uncover allegations of citizenship for votes.

“This is a disgraceful episode in the history of Parliament. The speaker lost his cool... it is a black dot in history,” said Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timor).

Karpal Singh (DAP-Bukit Gelugor) also acknowledged that the speaker’s decision was unprecedented.

“This is the first time that something like this has ever happened. It is a shame on the speaker for prejudging possible reactions on what might happen (if the minority report is included),” said the veteran MP.

However, Anwar added, this would not hamper Pakatan’s aim to unearth irregularities in the electoral system, and the pact’s next move would be to mount a campaign to continue exposing anomalies.

“We need a credible speaker to conduct the affairs of the House,” he stressed.

Print 28 million copies of minority report, says BN MP
Met outside the House, BN MPs expressed regret over Pakatan’s insistence on including the minority report into the PSC electortal reform report.

“The minority report was first raised during the PSC meeting and we clearly told them that it cannot be done because there can only be one  report, but the opposition wanted it.

“So we put it to a vote, six agreed there should be one report but to accommodate the request of the three other MPs, we included some of the points that they wanted in the minority report into the main report itself,” said P Kamalanathan (left, BN-Hulu Selangor).

Kamalanathan said the altercation, in turn, deprived MPs wanting to debate on the PSC report to offer their views.

The opposition presented “misleading facts”, said Abdul Rahman Dahlan (BN-Kota Belud), as it was made clear that the PSC report could not be altered.

“What is a minority report anyway? It is a report to tell the whole world your dissenting views, so go and print 28 million copies and give it to all Malaysians. It can be done, what is the problem?” Rahman  jibed, calling the ruckus a “charade”.
 
The five recommendations in the minority report are for the EC to:

• Admit that it is illegal to change voters’ constituencies, and return the 31,294 affected voters to their constituencies as of the last general election within 30 days of the PSC report being tabled in Parliament;

• Remove 42,000 voters from the electoral roll whose citizenship cannot be confirmed by the National Registration Department (NRD) within 15 days of the report being tabled;

• Investigate the more than 1,000 voters older than 100 years (including one who is allegedly 159 years old) and clean the electoral roll of this within 30 days of the report being tabled;

• Work the NRD to check on more than 15,000 instances where the gender opf the voters conflicts with their MyKad numbers, where numbers ending with an even number is supposed to be for females, and odd numbers for males, and clean the electoral roll within 30 days of the report being tabled; and

• Change the status of some 45,000 spouses of police officers from postal voters to normal voters because they are not eligible to be postal voters, within 15 days of the report being tabled. - malaysiakini

Like it or not electoral fraud will go on unabated...

Election reforms pressure group Bersih 2.0 is disappointed that the parliamentary select committee (PSC) on electoral reform has failed to address five key issues.

The five issues, Bersih 2.0 said, are:  

1.Manipulation of the electoral roll; 

2.The citizenship-for-votes scam in peninsula Malaysia; 

3.Enforcement of the Election Offences Act 1954 and enhancing the definition of election offences; 

4.A plan to stop ‘dirty politics’; and 

5.Inviting international observers.

In view of this, the Bersih 2.0 steering committee said it was “highly likely” that electoral fraud and other irregularities will continue unabated.

“A golden opportunity to right the wrongs and do something good for the benefit of Malaysians now and in the future has, sadly, been missed,” the committee said in a statement this evening.
 
Bersih 2.0 is the coalition that organised a mass rally on July 9 last year, which in part pressured the Najib administration into establishing the PSC, aimed at making suggestions to improve the electoral process.

Flaws in the electoral roll

The committee said the PSC had failed to suggest a thorough study into the processes of the Election Commission and the National Registration Department to stop manipulation of the electoral roll. Such areas include, among others, the removal of names and the changing of polling station boundaries.

On the alleged citizenship-for-votes scam in Peninsular Malaysia, the committee said that it was disappointing that only Sabah was mentioned.

“While the problem is acknowledged to exist in Sabah, there is no reference to Peninsular Malaysia, where the issue is also of relevance,” said the committee.

On enforcing election laws, the committee said that should have been a study into the types of offences committed and recommendations on how to prevent them.

“Although there is a suggestion that the EC be given more powers to deal with such issues, the PSC does not seek to identify the problems and the clear infringements of the Election Offences Act 1954,” said the committee.
 
No international observers

On stopping “dirty politics”, the committee said that while there was a reference to a code of conduct in relations to a caretake government, the code should cover all candidates and political parties. The committee said that an example of such a code of conduct, from India, was furnished by Bersih 2.0 to the PSC at one of the hearings.

On international observers, the committee said that Malaysia has been officially participated in election observation missions before, such as in Burma and Thailand.

“If we If we subscribe to and endorse the principle of having international observers by our participation in such missions, then Malaysia’s reticence in inviting international observers is wholly inexplicable,” said the committee.

On the 22 recommendations by the PSC, the committee said most of the recommendations involved the EC as the main implementing body.  The committee said that this posed two obvious drawbacks.
 
Can the EC follow through?

First, it argued, the existing EC has shown itself to be incapable or unwilling to initiate reforms and the question now was whether the commission has sufficient credibility to commit itself to undertaking the proposed recommendations.

Secondly, the committee said, Bersih 2.0, which comprised several legal experts, believes that many of the PSC’s recommendations could be implemented immediately.

“We do not see the need to provide for a lengthy implementation period.  We reiterate that Bersih 2.0 has demanded that reforms should be implemented before the 13th General Elections are held,” he said.

Of the 22 recommendations, 18 were without a implementation time-frame.

“We note that while some recommendations do provide for a time-frame to report back, many others do not. 

“The lack of a time-line merely prolongs the dissatisfaction and lack of confidence in the electoral system, and adds to the frustration of the people,” said the committee.-malaysiakini

Read EC's responses to the PSC's interim report here.

3 MP pembangkang diarah keluar dewan

 Tiga ahli parlimen pembangkang diarah keluar Dewan Rakyat hari ini kerana enggan mematuhi arahan Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia berhubung isu laporan minoriti.

Mereka mempersoalkan keputusannya tidak membenarkan laporan minoriti dilampirkan kepada laporan jawatankuasa pilih parlimen (SPA) bagi reformasi sistem pilihan raya.

"Di bawah Perintah Tetap 42, apabila speaker bercakap, anda mesti diam," Pandikar memberitahu mereka.

"Di bawah Perintah Tetap 43, keputusan speaker tidak boleh dipersoalkan... dan di bawah Perintah Tetap 44, saya mengarahkan Gombak (Azmin Ali), Subang (R Sivarasa) dan Kuala Selangor (Dzulkefly Ahmad) meninggalkan Dewan."

Pandikar baru sahaja mengambil alih tugas mempengerusikan sidang Dewan daripada timbalannya, Datuk Ronald Kiandee, apabila beliau memerintahkan mereka meninggalkan Dewan.

Sivarasa bangun selepas waktu rihat tengah hari untuk meminta panduan daripada Kiandee mengenai kemungkinan Pandikar silap dalam keputusannya berhubung laporan minoriti.

Kiandee (kanan) enggan melayan permintaan tersebut, tetapi Sivarasa, tidak putus asa - dengan dibantu oleh celahan daripada Azmin dan Dzulkefly - terus membangkitkan perkara itu.

Mereka membangkitkan duluan-duluan di mana laporan minoriti telah dibentangkan dalam Parlimen negara Komanwel yang lain.

Kiandee (lamam) bertegas bahawa keputusan Pandikar juga dibuat berdasarkan duluan dan amalan yang diterima di Parlimen New Zealand dan negara Komanwel yang lain.

Keadaan menjadi riuh-rendah apabila ahli Parlimen pembangkang terus mendesak perkara itu.

Penyata minoriti Jawatankuasa Pilihan Khas
 

 cheers.