Parliament Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia said in Parliament yesterday:
“A politician friend once told me: ‘If you are in power you are very powerful. If you don’t use the power you are a bloody fool.’
“Today I don’t want to be a bloody fool, I want to exercise my authority, and rule that the debate will be held in the next parliament meeting.”
Unfortunately, Pandikar has ended up, in his own words, as a “bloody fool” with his abuse of powers as Speaker in disallowing a debate on PAS President Datuk Seri Hadi Awang’s private member’s bill motion to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act or RUU 355, yesterday and adjourn the debate to the next parliamentary meeting scheduled in July.
In the first place, the Speaker has no authority to create his own rules or arrogate to himself powers that are not in the Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders, or we will have a dictator as Speaker of Parliament.
As Hadi’s motion was not debated and voted upon, the motion lapses and Hadi will have to start all over again to submit the private member’s bill afresh in the next parliamentary meeting, as there is no provision in the Standing Orders for the deferment of debate of a motion to the subsequent meeting.
In fact, any motion which is not debated and voted at a parliamentary meeting lapses, and notice of the motion would have to be given again to keep it alive on the agenda of the subsequent parliamentary meeting.
The Speaker of Parliament cannot be a dictator and all the Speaker’s claims yesterday about the supremacy of Parliament are just eye-wash, because in reality, the Speaker acts under the directive of the Executive.
This was why the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi was in Parliament for the entire proceeding yesterday, to make sure that the “script” for Hadi’s private member’s bill motion, not to allow a debate on Hadi’s motion after it had been proposed and seconded, would be followed to the letter!
Do I have any proof that this was the “script” right from the beginning?
Of course.
Firstly, this was the reason why the Dewan Rakyat meeting on Wednesday went on for 20 hours from 10 am until 5.05 am on Thursday, and five government bills were withdrawn, to “clear the decks” for the Dewan Rakyat agenda on Thursday to have only one item of business – Hadi’s private member’s bill motion.
Secondly, the Speaker had told the PKR MP for Gopeng, Dr. Lee Boon Chye who raised a point of order, that the government had asked the House to fast-track Hadi’s private motion, proof that the fast-tracking of Hadi’s motion was the decision not of one person or party, but of the Barisan Nasional government representing 13 BN component parties – although publicly Malaysians were told that Barisan Nasional would not take over Hadi’s private member’s bill.
Thirdly, the strongest proof that the whole proceeding in Parliament yesterday had been scripted to the letter and had the knowledge and approval of all the Barisan Nasional Ministers is the admission by the MIC President, Datuk Seri Dr. S. Subramaniam that Barisan Nasional leaders knew that Hadi’s motion would be tabled but not debated.
Subramaniam said the decision, made at the recent Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting, was to allow PAS to present their case on Hadi’s private member’s bill but there would be no debate or vote.
Was Hadi making use of the Prime Minister and UMNO President Datuk Seri Najib Razak, or Najib making use of Hadi?
Who is the “bloody fool” from the outrageous and disgusting parliamentary episode yesterday – Pandikar, Members of Parliament or Malaysians as a whole?