KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 13 — The next “official” Perak assembly sitting will convene on October 28.
Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) former senior state executive councillor Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham confirmed late last night that several state assemblymen had received their “notices to attend” the assembly from Barisan Nasional-endorsed Speaker Datuk R. Ganesan.
The notices, which had apparently reached them earlier yesterday evening, confirmed that the meeting would convene on Oct 28, as Ngeh had earlier alleged.
What remains to be seen now is PR’s next strategic move in this game of tug-of-war between them and the BN, which has been playing out for an exhausting nine months since February.
PR, however, has been less cryptic about their next planned step and is expected to attend the sitting, not by heeding Ganesan’s instructions but those of their own “Speaker”, Tronoh assemblyman V. Sivakumar.
When asked if the PR planned to attend the Oct 28 sitting, Ngeh said:
“We will follow instructions from Sivakumar and will not heed those of illegal Speaker Ganesan.”
This could mean Sivakumar may counter Ganesan’s “notice to attend” by issuing one of his own, with the same date and time, to allow the PR representatives into the assembly hall come Oct 28.
One PR assemblyman told The Malaysian Insider that it was clearly the “only way” to be physically present inside the state assembly hall, without conceding to the BN.
PR had earlier declared that they do not recognise Ganesan as the state’s legal Speaker and would therefore not abide by any of his instructions.
The state assemblyman said the main contention about the next hearing was that the PR representatives needed to find a way to get into the hall and stop whatever proceedings the BN had planned.
“This seems the best or only way (getting Sivakumar to send out his own notice). At least then they (BN) cannot say that we do not have the authority to be present inside. Unlike Sept 2, they cannot stop us from entering but it is up to us to say which notice we are adhering to,” he said.
On Sept 2, the Perak PR attempted to convene an assembly sitting but were barred from entering the State Secretariat by the police and government officials, forcing them to hold the sitting in a hotel.
The next state assembly sitting is a crucial one for the Perak government as the Mentri Besar is scheduled to propose and table the state’s Budget.
It is understood, however, that the PR, through its own “budget committee” also has a Budget of their own prepared.
Which government will get to table the Budget, however, is a separate matter altogether for in all probability, chaos could well prevent any proceeding from taking place.
“How can anything happen when we have two state governments in the hall and two Speakers?” said the state assemblyman.
Still, should either party push their Budgets through, it is clear that BN still has the majority vote with 31 lawmakers on their side and 28 for PR.
If the May 7 sitting is any indication, then Oct 28 could very well be a fruitless sitting; one where anarchy would reign within the walls of the state assembly hall once again.
Without tabling and passing the state’s Budget, Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abd Kadir would not be able to proceed with the state’s administration.
Meanwhile, BN’s senior executive councillor Datuk Hamidah Osman scoffed at PR’s plans to gatecrash the state assembly.
“And here I thought they simply would not even attend the sitting,” she joked when contacted recently.
Hamidah said that PR should quit with their nitpicking and start doing some work for a change.
“They just love to start fights. They always want to start trouble,” she said.
She added that the BN had no fear about PR’s proposed alternative budget for it was clear the latter coalition did not have enough representatives in the House to pass it.
“Who is going to authorise it? We have the majority,” she said.
When questioned about what would happen if the PR representatives caused enough trouble in the state assembly hall to prevent Zambry from even presenting BN’s budget, she laughed and coyly said:
“Well, we have our ways of passing the budget. Just like how we had our way of appointing our Speaker, we have our way of passing the budget.”
She added that the BN’s budget had scores of good announcements to benefit Perakians.
During the tumultuous May 7 sitting, BN’s Speaker Ganesan was appointed after Sivakumar was forcibly dragged from the Speaker’s chair.
In the fracas, DAP defector and assembly Deputy Speaker Hee Yit Foong took over proceedings and allowed the BN assemblymen to nominate, second and vote Ganesan into position.
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