Pakatan lawmakers on Thursday staged a walkout in protest of the ejection of Mohamed Hanipa Maidin (Sepang-Pas) and Azmin Ali (Gombak- PKR) from Dewan Rakyat.
Azmin was ejected from Dewan following a heated argument with the speaker in Parliament with regards to a motion of his condemning the judges of the Sodomy II trial, which was disregarded by the speaker.
Azmin during a press conference said the speaker had told him that priority should be given to motions raised by the Government as that is the law.
“But if that was so, my motion in the order paper should be immediately after theirs, which is number seven and not 21, which would make it the last motion on the last day of parliament.
“In addition to ejecting me without substantial explanation, the speaker failed to understand that the Federal Constitution actually can overcome the rules of the meeting, therefore allowing this issue to be discussed in the Parliament,” he said.
Azmin also stressed that the law of the house requires the approval of one -fourth of the speakers in order to discuss a motion in the parliament.
“We had the approval of 64 MP’s in total and that is far more than one-fourth.
“Despite all this however, he took the easy way out and kicked me out in turn, leading me to conclude that our Parliament is not democratic,” he added.
In another press conference following the walkout, Hanipa said that he was merely a victim of the situation.
“I was not planning to repeat anything with regards to the motion raised by Azmin, instead I wanted to discuss about AirAsia and their refusal to vacate the Low Cost Carrier Terminal by May 9, which is when the Government wants to close down the airport.
“However, the speaker who was already in a tense situation had not given me the opportunity to explain myself and kicked me out and I see that as a contempt of Parliament by the speaker,” he said. – thestaronline
