KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 ― DAP today appointed a panel of four lawyers who are also federal lawmakers to defend researcher Wong Chin Huat, following his breaking of an embargo on the Election Commission’s (EC) final report on its redelineation exercise.

In the pre-emptive move, DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang said the panel will be headed by the party’s Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh and also fellow DAP lawmakers Teo Nie Ching (Kulai), Lim Lip Eng (Segambut) and Thomas Su (Ipoh Timur) to defend Wong if he is ordered to face a hearing in Parliament for parliamentary contempt.

According to Lim, Wong had breached the embargo ― due to end tomorrow ― at a public forum in Kuala Lumpur today and had released the entire report online via non-governmental organisation ENGAGE.

Lim commended Wong for the action which he described as “patriotic”, agreeing with the latter that there was no acceptable reason for an embargo to be imposed on the EC’s report when it was tabled in Parliament last Thursday.

“In fact, there was no parliamentary embargo as Parliament did not adopt a motion to impose such an embargo.  

“The embargo was announced unilaterally and arbitrarily by the Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia, which was clearly improper, invalid and therefore illegal as outside the powers of the Speaker and against the Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders,” Lim said in a statement today.

Lim agreed with Wong that the relevant law in this matter would be the House of Parliament (Privileges and Powers) Act 1952’s Section 9 where parliamentary contempt can be punished with a maximum RM1,000 fine, noting that this would involve the Dewan Rakyat sitting as a “court” to decide whether he had committed parliamentary contempt.

But Lim argued that the researcher had not committed any parliamentary contempt in the alleged embargo breach, reiterating his assertion that there was no such embargo in place.

“How can there be any contempt of Parliament when Parliament had not passed a motion imposing an embargo on the Election Commission’s Constituency Redelineation Report?” he asked, having also noted that there has been no notice yet for a hearing by the Dewan Rakyat on Wong’s alleged parliamentary contempt.

The EC’s redelineation report is expected to be debated in Parliament tomorrow.

If the report is passed by at least a simple majority in Parliament, it will pave the way for new redrawn electoral boundaries to be used in the 14th general election (GE14). It will then take effect based on the date stated in the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s order.

The EC’s redelineation exercise has been criticised for allegedly being aimed at giving the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) an unfair advantage in the GE14 which must be called by this August, if not earlier.