Friday, February 27, 2009

Perak state legal advisor blocks notification of emergency sitting

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 — The Perak state legal advisor is trying to block state representatives from being notified of an emergency sitting of the state assembly on March 3rd.

According to DAP Perak chairman Ngeh Koo Ham, the legal advisor, Datuk Ahmad Kamal Mohd Shahid, has directed the house secretary not to send out notices of the emergency sitting.

Ngeh says that this obstruction is in “contempt of the house” and is liable for punishment under house rules.

“The legal advisor has no business to intervene in the process of the house,” Ngeh told The Malaysian Insider.

“He is not an advisor to the speaker or the house. He cannot stop the process and the final decision on whether to send the notices out lies with the speaker.”

To work around the obstruction, a press conference was held in Ipoh today and the speaker will explore other means of sending out the notifications.

Only 49 notices will be sent out.

Menteri Besar Datuk Zambry Abdul Kadir and his six exco members will not received a notification as they were recently suspended by the speaker.

Neither will the three state assemblymen who switched support to the Barisan Nasional (BN) earlier this month as they are regarded as having resigned.

Two motions will be tabled at the emergency sitting. The first motion is proposed by Titi Serong representative Khalil Idham Lim to reaffirm confidence in Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaludin to continue to lead as Menteri Besar.

The second motion is proposed by Teja representative Chang Lih Kang and requests the Menteri Besar to tackle the current political crisis by doing all that is necessary to dissolve the state assembly, including sending a request to His Royal Highness Sultan Azlan Shah to dissolve the state assembly.

If all goes according to plan, PR will have 28 assemblymen to BN’s 21 in the emergency session.

Zambry had earlier told The Malaysian Insider in an interview that he will defy his suspension, maintaining that the speaker had no jurisdiction for suspending him unilaterally for something that happened outside the assembly.

Reiterating PR’s stand that power was grabbed unconstitutionally in Perak, Ngeh says that the protracted battle is damaging to the state and its citizens and called upon the prime minister to advise Zambry to agree to dissolve the state assembly.

“Or hopefully, Sultan Azlan Shah can get parties to sit together and find an amicable solution. Let the people choose their government and their leaders.”

-malaysianinsider.com

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