After a marathon meeting, Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) President Datuk Yong Teck Lee has received endorsement by SAPP supreme council for his call for a vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Up to now, Parliament has not received any notice from any Member of Parliament for a no-confidence motion.

However, it is not necessary to have a proper motion of no confidence to create a “no confidence” vote in Parliament on the Prime Minister and the government-of-the-day.

I have been informed that the first item of parliamentary business after the 90-minute question time on Monday will be a motion by the Minister for Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad seeking support for the measures taken by the government over price increases of food, oil and commodities, including reduction of oil subsidies.

This government motion on price increases in Parliament on Monday can be turned into a no-confidence motion if there are enough numbers in Parliament to defeat it. Read the rest of this entry »

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In her Sunday Star parliamentary roundup “Lim stopped by Standing Orders” today, reporter Elizabeth Looi quoted Deputy Speaker Datuk Ronald Kiandee as confessing that he did not know whether I had spoken the truth in Parliament on Thursday when objecting to his decision to disallow my amendment to the Motion of Thanks for the Royal Address to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the three-decade long illegal immigrant problem in Sabah.

I had said that Kiandee had violated all parliamentary conventions, practices and precedents in Commonwealth Parliaments as well as the Malaysian Parliament in ruling my amendment motion as “irrelevant”, pointing out that I had previously amended a Motion of Thanks for the Royal Address in the Dewan Rakyat and which was debated and voted upon, though rejected.

Kiandee made the confession when interviewed by Sunday Star for the article, as evident in the following:

Kiandee defended the decision and said it was not in any way politically influenced.

He said he would not know if Lim was telling the truth when the latter said he had been allowed to table an amendment to a motion of thanks previously.

As Deputy Speaker, Kiandee should not have acted out of ignorance, as it could be no justification for violating established parliamentary conventions, practices and precedents in Commonwealth Parliaments and the Malaysian Parliament itself, which could easily be checked whether what I had said was true.

I was not “stopped by Standing Orders” but by Kiandee who misused and abused the Standing Orders.

I had amended such a Motion of Thanks for the Royal Address in the Dewan Rakyat on 12th October 1982 and it was voted and rejected on 13th October 1982! Read the rest of this entry »

(Media Conference Statement at Perak DAP Hqrs in Ipoh on Saturday, 24th May 2008)

The 54th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference on “Expanding the role of Parliament in Global Society” will be held in Kuala Lumpur from August 1 to 10, 2008 and it should be a matter of pride to Malaysian Members of Parliament that the country has been given the honour to play host to the annual conference for the Commonwealth’s 172 Parliaments and legislatures.

Malaysia spent about RM7 million to host a much smaller parliamentary conference last year – the 28th Asean Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) in Kuala Lumpur last August involving nine ASEAN nations.

The cost for hosting the 54th Conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association will be many times more than organising the AIPA Assemby and I will ask in Parliament on Monday how much the Malaysian taxpayers will have to bear for Malaysia hosting the August Conference – whether RM20 – RM30 million or even more.

Apart from the cost of the CPA Conference in August, another equally important question is its purpose.

This is because it would be shameful for Malaysia to host the 54th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference on “Expanding the role of Parliament in global society” on August 1 – 10 when the role of Malaysian MPs are being diminished and cannot even move an amendment to the Motion of Thanks for Royal Address, as happened on Thursday when my amendment motion to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry to resolve the 30-year problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah was disallowed by the Deputy Speaker, Datuk Ronald Kiandee on the ground of being “irrelevant” to the motion proper.

Can Ronald Kiandee cite another Commonwealth Parliament which disallows amendments to the equivalent of Motion of Thanks for the Royal Address on the ground that it is “irrelevant”? Read the rest of this entry »

This is the video clip and Hansard extract of the parliamentary proceeding yesterday – another sad day for Sabah.

It could be the day for redemption for Sabah, the first step in the realisation of the 30-year dream of Sabahans to end the nightmare of illegal immigrants which have made them and future generations strangers in their own state.

Apologies for the defect in the video clip of the parliamentary proceeding yesterday on the rejection of my amendment to the Motion of Thanks for the Royal Address to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry to resolve the long-standing problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah.

It is now uploaded together with the Hansard (official parliamentary report).

Read the rest of this entry »

I have faxed notice to the Speaker, Tan Sri Pandikar Amin to move a substantive motion to review and overrule the decision of Deputy Speaker Datuk Ronald Kiandee in disallowing me from moving an amendment to the Motion of Thanks for the Royal Address yesterday in order to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the 30-year problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah, reducing Sabahans into a minority in their own homeland.

My substantive motion reads:

“That under Standing Order 43 the House reviews the decision of Deputy Speaker YB Datuk Ronald Kandee in disallowing MP for Ipoh Timor YB Lim Kit Siang from moving an amendment to the Motion of Thanks for the Royal Address on Thursday, 22nd May 2008 and resolves that the decision of the Chair was wrong and misconceived as it is contrary to parliamentary conventions and practices in Malaysia and the Commonwealth.”

As a substantive motion under S.O. 43 shall not require more than two days’ notice, this means that it should be able to be debated by the Dewan Rakyat next week.

In the first parliamentary meeting after the 1982 general election, the first of the five general elections under the premiership of Tun Dr. Mahathir, I had moved an amendment to the Motion of Thanks for the Royal Address in the Dewan Rakyat on 12th October 1982.

The amendment, adding to to the Motion of Thanks, was to include the following:

“And noting the grave law and order problem created by the influx of illegal Indonesian illegal immigrants causing armed robberies and murders, URGES the government to crack down on the illegal Indonesian immigrants by estsblishing a Special Task Force III (Indonesian Illegal Immigrants) to stop the influx of illegal Indonesian immigrants.”

The amending motion to the Motion of Thanks was accepted by the Speaker at the time, Datuk Mohamed Zahir Ismail, who went on to be the longest-serving Parliament Speaker for 22 years from 1982 to 2004.

The amending motion was defeated in a voice vote on 13rd October 1982 after a debate. Read the rest of this entry »

The amendment motion in Parliament to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry to realize the three-decade dream of the people of Sabah to end their nightmare of the long-standing problem of illegal immigrants in the state was sabotaged when it was disallowed on the most flippant and unacceptable of grounds.

I had sought to move the amendment to the Motion of Thanks in Parliament by proposing the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the illegal immigrant problem in Sabah at the end of the winding-up speeches by all the Ministers, which was about 6.30 p.m., but the Deputy Speaker Ronald Kiandee disallowed it on the ground that it was irrelevant.

How could the long-standing and intractable 30-year problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah be irrelevant to what should be the policy concerns of the Federal government for the next 12 months – which in a nutshell is what the Royal Address is all about.

I had previously moved an amendment to a Motion of Thanks for the Royal Address which is the conventional and acceptable practice in all Commonwealth Parliaments as it is an opportunity for a policy debate and resolution – but the Malaysian Parliament is regressing backwards instead of striking forward to become a First-World Parliament.

I feel sad at the shocking disallowance of the amending motion for it also sends out the message that after 30 years, the primary concern of Sabahans – the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah – is still not taken seriously at the national level and merely treated as a peripheral issue!

It is now 10.30 p.m.

Waiting in Parliament for the whole day – second one – for the end of the front-bench speeches in the Ministerial winding-up to move the amendment to the Motion of Thanks for the Royal Address to propose the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the long-standing and intractable illegal immigrant problem in Sabah.

The Minister for Housing and Local Government, Ong Ka Chuan, is replying. I stood up to remark that it was all “a political sandiwara” when he replied to the MP for Kulai who is not only his brother but was the Housing and Local Government Minister (Ong Ka Ting) and should have the answers on his fingertips as the Minister responsible for the portfolio for two terms.

There are still two more Ministries before coming to the Prime Minister’s Department, which has four Ministers who should be replying individually on their respective portfolios.

Do not expect the ministerial winding-up to end by midnight – which means my amendment motion for the establishment of a RCI on the illegal immigrants in Sabah will be deferred until tomorrow.

More time for Sabahans and concerned Malaysians to contact MPs, particularly the Sabah Barisan Nasional MPs, to support the amendment motion to bring into being a Royal Commission of Inquiry to resolve the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah and fulfil their dream of Sabahans for three decades to end their nightmare in the state.

The three-decade dream of Sabahans for a Royal Commission of Inquiry on illegal immigrants in the state will be realized tomorrow if the 24 Barisan Nasional Sabah MPs join the 82 Pakatan Rakyat MPs to support the amendment to the Motion of Thanks for the establishment of such a Royal Commission.

For the past thirty years, calls for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the illegal immigrant problem had been made in Parliament, the Sabah State Assembly as well as in the public domain but they had been totally ignored.

Now, for the first time in three decades, it is possible for such a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the long-standing and intractable problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah, which had reduced Sabahans into a minority to foreigners, to be established provided the 24 Barisan Nasional MPs from Sabah walk the talk about their concerns about this issue and support my amendment to the Motion of Thanks for the Royal Address to set up such a Royal Commission.

The support of the 24 BN MPs is all that is needed to secure the necessary majority in Parliament to direct the Cabinet to set up such a Royal Commission of Inquiry as there will be 82 Pakatan Rakyat MPs in support of the proposal. Read the rest of this entry »

The Star
Monday May 19, 2008
Lim to bring up Sabah’s problem

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s longstanding illegal immigrant problem may be discussed at length in Parliament this week if a motion concerning the issue is allowed.

DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang said yesterday he would table a motion to amend the motion of thanks on the royal address on tomorrow’s sitting.

The amendment, he said, called for the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry to resolve the long-standing problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah, to the extent that there was legitimate fear that Sabahans were being outnumbered by foreigners in their own state.

Lim, the Ipoh Timur MP, said he had given notice to Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia on the motion on Friday.

He said the establishment of the Royal Commission of Inquiry would become a reality if Barisan MPs lent their support to the motion. Read the rest of this entry »