IPOH, May 13 — Perak state executive councillor (exco) Datuk Shahrul Zaman Yahya today clarified that the commotion in the Perak state assembly sitting yesterday was due to the refusal of Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham to resign voluntarily as the state Speaker, despite losing the majority required in the assembly.
The Rungkup assemblyman said that Ngeh’s resignation should have been the first order of business after the opening address by the Sultan of Perak Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah.
“With the fall of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, the Speaker had in essence lost the majority required in the assembly to continue serving.
“By convention and in respect of the new political configuration in the assembly, the Speaker should have resigned voluntarily as soon as the assembly was underway,” he wrote in a Facebook posting.
“Upon the completion of the royal address, the Speaker noted to the House that he intended to make some announcements.
“This prompted the mentri besar to invoke Section 13(2) of the House Standing Orders, which notes that any motion moved by the mentri besar must take precedence over any other order of business,” he added.
Shahrul said this called for a vote in the House to verify if the Speaker continued to enjoy the majority needed to maintain his position.
“This was rejected by the Speaker although 13(2) clearly states that the mentri besar’s motion should take precedence over any other order of business. The mentri besar then proceeded to call for a vote to remove the Speaker which was successful.
“This was the reason for the unfortunate commotion in the House. I believe the Speaker should have vacated his seat as soon as he lost the vote. It was unfortunate that he refused to do so,” he explained.
Shahrul also said that although Ngeh tried to adjourn the assembly before appointing a new Speaker, the attempt was quickly negated by the fact that the adjournment of the assembly required a motion as per the assembly’s standing orders.
“Also, Ngeh was no longer the Speaker at that point of time based on the invoked 13.2 Standing Order and the motion put forward by the mentri besar for the Speaker to vacate his seat which was seconded by 35 members of the state assembly,” he said.
Sharul also said that the notice to appoint a new Speaker was in fact delivered to the assembly secretariat seven days before as per the requirement; thus, the appointment of Datuk Mohammad Zahir Abdul Khalid as the new State Speaker is valid.
Earlier, Ngeh in a statement accused the Perak Perikatan Nasional (PN) government under Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu of “assaulting democracy” at yesterday’s state assembly sitting.
Ngeh, who filed a police report over yesterday’s incident, urged the police to conduct a thorough investigation and act immediately against those involved and charge them in court so that the rule of law can be upheld.
