Pakatan MPs booted out after motion on Anwar's suspension shot down

By Syed Jamal Zahid and Patrick Lee
KUALA LUMPUR: Pakatan Rakyat MPs were booted out from the Dewan Rakyat after the Speaker rejected an emergency motion to debate Anwar Ibrahim's looming parliamentary suspension.

Azmin Ali (Gombak-PKR) had questioned why the Opposition Leader was disallowed from cross-examining witnesses or defending himself before the Rights and Privileges Committee.
Speaker Pandikar Mulia Amin shot down the motion, saying that a decision was yet to be made by the committee and that Azmin's motion was prejudicial.
Azmin's continuous argument with the Speaker then caused the latter to order Azmin and four other PKR MPs to leave the Dewan. This prompted the remaining Pakatan MPs to stage a walkout in support of their colleagues.
Anwar was hauled up before the committee following his accusation that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's administration had employed a public relations company, APCO Worldwide, linked to Israel.
Information was leaked to the media that the committee had already decided to suspend Anwar from the Dewan Rakyat and the decision is expected to be tabled next Wednesday.
Anwar in a press conference last week said he was aware of the decision and said he and his team of lawyers were denied the right to defend himself.
In a press conference at the Parliament lobby today, Azmin said that he had submitted the motion on Monday morning but it was rejected by Pandikar in the Speaker's Chambers this morning under Standing Order 85 (which states that proceedings of the committee cannot be disclosed).
However, Azmin said, “I'm not asking about the documents or the notes of the proceeding. What concerns me is how could we bring the recommendation to the House when the proceeding has not taken place?”
'An Umno lackey'
Karpal Singh (Bukit Gelugor-DAP) said that it was also wrong for the Speaker to reject the motion in his chambers instead of in the Dewan Rakyat, as Pandikar was also the chairman of the committee.
He added that the decision should have been made by deputy Speaker Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar as he was not a committee member.
Incensed by this rejection, Azmin attempted to bring up the motion before the Dewan Rakyat, but was overridden multiple times by the Speaker.
Finally in a fit of anger, the Gombak MP called Pandikar's actions a “conflict of interest”, and accused him of being an Umno lackey.
“If judges and doctors can be bought, then I don't want the Speaker to be bought by Umno,” he said, which caused an uproar, with several BN MPs standing up in defence of the Speaker, and shouting at Azmin to back off.
Eventually, the Speaker told the Pakatan MPs, including Azmin and four other PKR MPs standing up at the time, to leave the Dewan Rakyat until further proceedings at 2:30pm.
Reacting in disgust to the decision, more than 20 remaining Pakatan MPs walked out in protest.
“This is outrageous, and goes against the principles of justice, where the accused is not allowed to give his statement,” Azmin later said, adding that Pandikar's decision went against what he previously said on April 22 this year.
'Stain on Parliament'
According to Azmin, the Speaker said that a person referred to the committee was to be given the right to give his statement and to call for witnesses.
He also found it odd that Pandikar invoked Standing Order 83(11), where the committee may refuse any statements that had no connection with the charge involved.
R Sivarasa (Subang-PKR) revealed to the Press that BN committee members had called for the proceedings to carry on without calling for any evidence or to give Anwar a chance to defend himself.
As he and Karpal were both members of the committee, they objected strenuously, but to no avail. “We considered that completely unfair to Anwar, so we withdrew from the proceedings,” Sivarasa said.
Condemning the rejection of the motion, Karpal said that it was a clear-cut case of the Speaker having an agenda against the Opposition Leader.
He said that even an APCO representative and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Abdul Aziz had been invited to give their testimonies before the committee's previous June 9 meeting.
Expressing his disappointment, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang (Ipoh Timur) said that the rejection of today's motion was a stain on Malaysia's Parliament.
“Justice must not only be done, but must also be seen to be done. When Parliament forms this committee, there must not only be a majority report, but also a minority or dissenting report,” he said.