Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia broke the Speaker’s gavel at a time when he was mightily displeased that his decisions are being challenged in court.

But is the Speaker aware that conscientious and hard-working Members of Parliament are mightily displeased with his many 1MDB-related decisions, such as rejecting questions on the 1MDB scandal by over 30 Members of Parliament in the current parliamentary meeting, and virtually banning 1MDB from being debated in Parliament, with no meaningful recourse to the Standing Orders to review the Speaker’s ruling?

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Deparment in charge of Parliamentary Affairs, Datuk Azalina Othman Said said Pakatan Harapan MP for PJ Selatan, Hee Loy Sien, had undermined Parliament’s independence and sullied Parliament’s good name when he sued Parliament Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia.

Azalina cannot be more wrong.

I fully endorse Loy Sien’s legal action and the statement by the Pakatan Harapan MP for Padang Serai, N. Surendran who, together with Latheefa Koya act as Loy Sien’s lawyers, said that the suit against the Parliament Speaker was intended to uphold the dignity and role of Parliament to be the scrutineer of the actions of the Executive.

Loy Sien’s legal recourse is in fact a reflection of Azalina’s failure to uphold the parliamentary conventions in keeping with a first-world Parliament, where Parliament has not lost the powers and the independence intended by the Constitution and the doctrine of separation of powers among the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary.
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