'Zambry may be Perak MB but I'm still speaker'

BN-appointed Perak assembly speaker R Ganesan cannot automatically claim to be the legal speaker of the house just because the Federal Court recently ruled that Menteri Besar Zambry Abdul Kadir from BN was the legitimate head of the Perak government

Ousted Pakatan Rakyat Speaker V Sivakumar (left in photo below) said: "There is no provision in the Perak constitution that states that Ganesan (right) can automatically become the assembly speaker just because the Federal Court has ruled that Zambry is the legitimate Menteri Besar of Perak."

"Ganesan, being a lawyer, should have a better understanding of the laws of Perak. My advice to him is to go and study carefully the Perak constitution before making wild media statements claiming that he is the lawful assembly speaker," thundered Sivakumar.

Ganesan had released a media statement yesterday saying that he automatically qualified to be the legitimate assembly speaker following Zambry being declared as the legal head of government by the Federal Court.

At a media conference at the DAP state headquarters here today, Sivakumar outlined five reasons why Ganesan could not qualify to be the legal assembly speaker. They were:

The first was that on the day of the assembly sitting on May 7 last year, police had obtained a court order prohibiting members of the public from coming within a 500 metre radius of the state secretariat building where the state assembly hall is situated on the second floor.

Royal address

Sivakumar questioned how Ganesan could have been allowed to enter the house when the police refused to let in eight Pakatan members of Parliament. "This means that Ganesan had illegally entered the House and had broken the law by not respecting the court ordered ban," alleged the Pakatan speaker.

Secondly, according to the state assembly's agenda for the May 7 sitting, the Regent of Perak Raja Nazrin Shah was supposed to have delivered his royal address before the business of the house could commence.

However, this was not adhered as Ganesan was appointed speaker in the morning before the royal speech in the afternoon was delivered and this move was illegal, pointed out Sivakumar.

Thirdly, according to Sivakumar further, assembly deputy speaker Hee Yit Foong had tendered her resignation letter as assemblyperson on Feb 3, 2009. As such she should not have attended the assembly sitting but she chose to and also broke the house rules by conducting the appointment of Ganesan while he (Sivakumar) was still sitting in the speaker's chair.

Fourthly, a day before the assembly sitting on May 7, Sivakumar said he had rejected the two motions by Pangkor assemblyperson Zambry and Sungai Rapat assemblyperson Hamidah Osman to remove Sivakumar as speaker and replace him with a new speaker.

Lawyer question

Sivakumar said that both Zambry and Hamidah had been suspended for 18 months and 12 months respectively by the sate Powers and Privileges Committee headed by Sivakumar in February 2009.

Both motions were therefore invalid and could not be questioned or debated by any elected member in the assembly sitting.

Sivakumar said lastly, Ganesan had stopped being a practising lawyer within three months of being appointed as the assembly speaker which is a breach of Section 36A (5) of the Perak constitution which states that a member who is elected as speaker shall be disqualified from holding such office if after three months he is still practising his profession.

Sivakumar said Ganesan should have sent in his letter stating that he had ceased being a practising lawyer by August 7, 2009 to the Malaysian Bar Council but instead chose to send it later and backdating it.

courtesy of Malaysiakini