Penang assembly bins BN motion seeking DAP rep’s remorse for ‘celaka’ remark

GEORGE TOWN, May 22 — The Penang legislative assembly threw out today Barisan Nasional’s (BN) motion demanding that DAP’s RSN Rayer apologise for his “celaka, celaka, celaka Umno” remark, after it failed to get the support required for a debate.

The motion, proposed by Muhammad Farid Saad (BN — Pulau Betong), needed the support of at least 10 state assemblymen for it to be put up for debate.

BN only has a total of 10 state assemblymen out of the 40 seats in the august house so it was short of one vote to support the motion to be debated.

Datuk Mahmud Zakaria (BN — Sungai Acheh) tried to plead with Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng (DAP — Air Putih) to support the motion, but not a single Pakatan Rakyat (PR) backbencher offered their vote.

Outside the state assembly later, state Opposition leader Datuk Jahara Hamid (BN — Teluk Ayer Tawar) expressed disappointment that no PR backbencher supported their motion.

“This proved that DAP condones the use of vulgar words in the august hall and is not sincere in protecting the sovereignty of the state constitution and the assembly,” she said.

She added that she had willingly apologised on behalf of the group of Umno members who had intruded into the state assembly main hall.

“We have already repeatedly said we do not agree to the intrusion and apologised accordingly so in the spirit of austerity, Rayer should rightly apologise and retract his words too,” she said.

Yesterday, about 50 Umno youth members demonstrated outside the gates of the state legislative assembly before they broke through the gate and a dozen of them forced their way into the august hall.

They went into the hall shouting for Rayer and demanded that he apologise and retract his words in calling Umno ‘celaka’.

The group left the hall after being persuaded by officials but continued to demonstrate outside the gates until about 4.30pm.

The state assembly has since approved two motions condemning the intrusion, demanding that criminal charges be brought against the culprits and that Jahara apologise on their behalf.

This morning, a group of Umno members, believed to be the same as those from yesterday, turned up again outside the state legislative assembly but this time, they were kept under close watch by the police.

Jahara later told them not to approach the legislative assembly building. The group complied and left the area shortly after.