Thursday, February 19, 2009

Speaker More Powerful Than Sultan ?

Hantu Laut

Lack of experience and ignorance of rules and procedures is making life more and more difficult for Pakatan. Whether it is ignorance, arrogance or defiance, it has thrown the state of Perak into serious constitutional crisis.

Perak's Speaker of the Assembly V.Sivakumar abusing the rules and procedures of the assembly to keep Pakatan in power is shocking and unprecedented. His attempt through malfeasance to overthrow a government constitutionally appointed by the Sultan is making mockery of the Sultan's constitutional powers.

The job of a speaker is to ensure members of the house abide by the standing orders and sits as chairman of the 'committe of privileges'. It is not his job to take sides. He must be seen to be fair, impartial and without bias. He is speaker of the house representing all the members, not just Pakatan.If he can't carry on his duties fairly and without malice than he should tender his resignation.


The Speaker V.Sivakumar is now the most powerful man in Perak, more powerful than the Sultan of Perak.He can appoint and sack Menteri Besar and government. His impertinence is a slap in the Sultan's face.As Speaker of the assembly he must be seen to be fair, impartial, show no bias and must ensure the proceedings of the house are in accordance with rules and procedures of the assembly and that of the State and Federal Constitution.

This show of disrespect for the Sultan is a threat to the constitutional monarch and making mockery of the State and Federal Constitutions. Amazingly, some legal minds think the Speaker has the right to suspend those assemblymen to keep an illegal government in power.You can read the great minds here. Making general assumptions without quoting the relevant autority. This learned law professor may have forgotten that the whole Pakatan government had fallen when the Sultan deemed that Menteri Besar Nizar Jamaluddin had lost the confidence of the majority members of the assembly and
refused to dissolve the assembly.A new government and new menteri besar had been installed that the Sultan in his judgement deemed to command the majority support of the members of the house.

What the Speaker should have done is to ask for the assembly to be convened and to be attended by all assemblymen. Pakatan can, if they so wish, try to pass a vote of no confidence at the new menteri besar. A simple majority would suffice.

Under such situation few things can happen. The BN ignore the suspension and continue governing the state (not optimal choice), the Sultan dissolves the assembly and call for fresh elections (possible but unlikely), BN take the case to court or as last resort the Federal government can request the Agong, if he is satisfied such emergency exists, to impose emergency rule in Perak.

Or if the BN is confident of majority support of the members they should call for the assembly to be convened and remove Sivakumar as speaker.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please do not sideline the important issue here by melodramatically proclaiming that the speaker is now more powerful than the Sultan. Just because things don't go your way, it doesn't mean that you have a prerogative to make ridiculous assertions.

It is clear now that Perak is no longer governable. The only way out is for the Sultan to dissolve the state assembly so that fresh elections can be held. If BN is all that good, they shouldn't worry about not getting the majority of seats. What this means is that, once BN gets their comfortable majority, they will rule with more legitimacy and with more popular support.

Y1 said...

BN has been showing how unsavoury they are and the Rakyat will bear with this gungho character of PR in Perak, as they were robbed. The Sultan did not help by not dissolving the State Assembly. When the perception of justice has been perverted, the only recourse left is often unpredictable if not violence. The people power of Philipines overthrew a corrupt dictator, will the Rakyat be pushed into this course of action? If the BN call for an emergency I think a large majority will be up in arms with rage, hopefully not with weapons.

Anonymous said...

HL

you seems to be so eager to be one sided?

you seems to hold the absolute truth ?

you seems to be cock sure you know all ?

you are in Sabah now or in Perak ?

do you feel the simmering anger of the Perakians ? Be it chinese, malay or indian ! Even the sultan had eased himself to the background, because he knows, he has made the wrong judgement, he judged the people's sentiment wrongly !

The law and the constitution is to govern the people...all of it !
What's the use of it when it is used to abuse the people ? To keep a certain crooked minority rich and fat from corruptions and devious means ?

When the law and the constitution serve its purpose that way, it will be just a pile of useless papers....same goes to the bunch of morons behind it.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 7:13pm,

"Even the sultan had eased himself to the background, because he knows, he has made the wrong judgement, he judged the people's sentiment wrongly !"

So, you seem to know what majority Perakians think?

So, you seem to know how the Sultan feel?

So, you seem to think you are better read on the Perak Constitutional Law better than the Perak ruler himself?

Geeez... I think you should get your head checked for cracks.

Anonymous said...

Speaker not more powerful than the sultan lah. He is just acting on behalf of the rakyat, and the mood of the rakyat is for a snap election. Don't try to stir up anger against the speaker if you don't understand parliamentary democracy. Tell you what rakyat mpore powerful than sultan. We can thank Tun Dr Mahathir who made it possible for ordinary rakyat like you and me to sue royalty now.

Anonymous said...

By Debra Chong , The Malaysian Insider

The Perak Speaker acted within his powers when he barred Menteri Besar Datuk Zambry Abdul Kadir and six executive councillors from the next sitting of the state legislature, in the latest move arising from the constitutional crisis in Perak, said a law expert today.

Abdul Aziz Bari, a law professor at the International Islamic University here, told The Malaysian Insider that the Speaker’s authority covers a very wide area in matters involving the assembly’s regulations.

“That includes the finality on the interpretation of provisions in the Standing Orders, the rules which govern the House,” he said.

Veteran lawyer, Karpal Singh, concurred.

Karpal, who is also the DAP chairman, said that while V Sivakumar is a first-term Speaker, he is absolutely within his rights to act as he did today.

Earlier today, Sivakumar announced that Zambry would not be allowed to take part in the state assembly’s proceedings for the next 18 months, following a probe by the state assembly’s Special Privileges Committee.

Sivakumar added that six other BN state lawmakers would also not be allowed in for the next 12 months.

The committee had acted following complaints that the seven state assemblymen were appointed unconstitutionally.

Abdul Aziz observed that at the federal level, the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat has previously made some “absurd and illogical decisions — rejecting motions and suspending members, among others”.

“Now it is the turn of the BN to taste that,” he noted.

Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin maintains he is still the lawful menteri besar of Perak as he has neither resigned from his post nor has he been voted out by the majority of assemblymen in the state legislative assembly.

His civil suit against Zambry, filed last Friday challenging the Pangkor assemblyman for usurping his authority, was heard this morning at the High Court here.

Abdul Aziz said that Nizar has a right to stake his claim in court as it is based on the “dubious position of Zambry’s government”.

He added that the state government “owes its position” to the majority in the legislative assembly.

“This is the problem as we are not sure whether Zambry’s got that,” the professor said.

Anonymous said...

Anon 7:26

I am on the ground.

The Perakian ground.

The answers to all your questions will be made by a resounding defeat of BN in Bukit Gantang.

Anonymous said...

PR people are just so immature in politics. This include their Professor Abdul Aziz Bari. I remember his article in HarakahDaily about how Anwar Ibrahim can topple the government by proving to Agong that he has the majority just the same like what Najib did with Sultan Azlan. But when Najib did it, he said it is unconstitutional. What the heck?

Now this Mr Speaker had abused his power. Time to remove him. As far as history goes, this is the first time a commission for ADUN conduct been setup without standing order in DUN. This thing should be debated in House Assembly dey. Man..Is this a joke or what. This is not professional dey. Only show your ugly face macha.

But afraid not. Dr Zambry will handle this professionally. So this isn't checkmate yet. Not yet. The checkmate will be but it will be from BN to PR.

PR is going down. Their inability to control their ego, emotional, arrogance, immaturity, moral etc will kill them.

one

Anonymous said...

Daulat Tuanku? We have a new Sultan? Is he telling the Sultan of Perak he can dispense with His Majesty's role in a constitutional monarchy?

My, my, what arrogance. As they say, pide goes before a fall.

To all who care to pay heed, don't any of you, BN or PR, dare to make a fool of the Sultan. I think the time has now come to put a stop to all this nonsense.

AYAH

Anonymous said...

Hantu laut,
I think the best solution is to go back to the rakyat to get a mandate--don't you think so.

Anonymous said...

As stated in your article, you mentioned

"..........The Speaker V.Sivakumar is now the most powerful man in Perak, ########## more powerful than the Sultan of Perak.########### He can appoint and sack Menteri Besar and government. His impertinence is a slap in the Sultan's face.As Speaker of the assembly he must be seen to be fair, impartial, show no bias and must ensure the proceedings of the house are in accordance with rules and procedures of the assembly and that of the State and Federal Constitution....."

Well ...well....Why twisting !? Moreover you gain nothing extra.

Seems that you really like to see "RAKYAT" going to suffer further.


Hope you can get the message below

“If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience.”

Woodrow T. Wilson quotes (American 28th President of the United States 1856-1924)

Anonymous said...

Speaker abuse power , thats rich!!!

HL, Why dont you quote the idiot Speaker from the current Parliament, isnt he one sided and full of malice.

When DSAI requested for a motion to move a vote of no confidence against PM Badawi, why did the Parliament speaker not allow it.

Whats so scared?

if PM really have the MPs backing him!!

I say Go Sivakumar, in fact if the BN state assemblymen move any motion to dismiss him as speaker, DISALLOW IT!!

Like what Pandikar do, when has Pandikar ever allowed any Pakatan motion to be debated in Parliament@!!!


You call that a fair speaker!!!

Sivakumar is just giving you guys a dose of what the Barisan speaker has been doing all this while.

tastes bitter doesnt it !!!!

Justice said...

HL you are biased and one sided. Do you feel the pulse of the public. Do you hear the cry of the Rakyat. Don't be arrogant.

When bn can do the most immoral stunts then this is nothing! cheers buddy ! Pray for a clear vision which is untainted.

Anonymous said...

hantu,

study the constitution first before commending further.
just a little tip. the constitution in Perak is different from that in other states.
by the way, just wondering why UMNO is so good in hiding behind the Sultan now.
Remember how UMNO demean the Sultan of Terengganu. where were you, Hantu?
Why not just a by-election to solve the impasse? Why is UMNO so scare? Because they know that the people are not with them? prove the darn PR centric bloggers wrong (not you).

Anonymous said...

Any legitimate government will b willing to test its support through polling the people - BN is avoiding it, and Pakatan is asking for it - so who is scared of the people?
Yes, we don't know what will happen in a new election - will BN or PR be voted in - but that's the point, right? In this stalemate; a democratic state needs to go back to the voters. The govenment is elected by the people; not selected primarily by the Sultans.

Noyawns

Monsterball said...

Please don't drag in the Sultan.

The Speaker is not the one dragging in the Sultan. He has NOT dismissed the MB. Its a procedural suspension in the House - which is the Speaker is entitled to do. Barisan Nasional is free to challenge it in the Courts.

Your bias is shining through like a lighthouse.

Anonymous said...

At least it's now for all readers to see of how 'non partisan' Hantu is, isn't it?
The 'malice' part he accused of the speaker is so evident because hantu did not use the same argument when invoking the possibility of an emergency rule by the PM, we had a reader commenting on the point still unanswered. All hantu's arguments lead to the preservation on BN government as it is today, status quo.

Pak Zawi said...

HL,
BN made too many blunders for in their haste to seize power they didn't do their homework well. The price BN has to pay is very steep indeed. A snap election is the only recourse and the Sultan should grant it soon so that he will endear himself to the Rakyat again other than being seen as being manipulated by BN.
Let the people decide.
When people in leadership positions do not decide wisely, this is the result.

Anonymous said...

Some how people who are vocal for another Perak state by-election seems to be pretty cock sure that there will be a clear cut majority.

What makes them having such moral authority to have such foresight. What if it does not and the result is still a "hung dewan"?


MRSM Kalae Chepo 66/73

Anonymous said...

Can the word "DERHAKA" be played up in this constitutional monarchy nation?

Anonymous said...

HL,

Well, then let HRH dissolve the Perak State Assembly & let the people of Perak decide.
Oh wait, HRH & his pals the BN do not want that do they?!
Sorry to say this but you sound very much like Hishammuddin & his bunch of turd brain UNMOputras shouting their support for the Royalty (when we know it was UMNO in the first place that "restricted" the Royalty).
Let the people decide. The people are more powerdul than the Sultan!

gram.kong said...

Dear SM,
It's no about having turd brain, it's about respecting the Constitution.The Sultan have the prerogative not to dissolve the assembly.Menteri Besar Nizar should have gone to the Sultan earlier while he still enjoys confidence of majority members of the house.

He went to see the Sultan after BN declared they have the majority.The constitution does not provide allowance for MB to ask for dissolution of the assembly after having lost the majority confidence of the house.That's why the Sultan did not accede to his request.

The Sultan acted in good faith but Anwar Ibrahim and DAP the biggest losers in this tragic reversal of fortune have successfully used the Malays through PAS and PKR to demonise the Sultan.

The problem is no matter how plausible my explanation is, Pakatan supporters and people like you will not agree because you are blinded by Pakatan's propaganda.

Believe me, Pakatan will lose the court case and I already knew what the general consensus among Pakatan's leaders, supporters and people like you.All and sundry will accuse the judges as being biased and corrupted.Bought by the evil BN government.

Let's get your facts correct, why did Mahathir remove the rulers' immunity from prosecution? You probably remember the Sultan of Johor incident.Only after this dreadful incident the BN government went to Parliament to amend the Constitution to remove the rulers' immunity from criminal and civil prosecution.The BN never removed the constitutional powers of the monarchs.These powers are still very intact in the state and federal constitutions.Only the Agong's royal assent to bills passed by Parliament was slightly amended that make the bills automatically the law if the Agong refused to give his royal assent.Whether the same was extended in the state constitutions I am not sure.It could have been included just to be in line with the Federal Constitution

I am sure you don't want the sultans or their families going round killing people or owe the banks money and refused to pay back and get away with it.

Before the amendment they are at liberty to do all that and the law can't touch them.