Suspensions will 'give BN two-thirds majority'
Rasah MP Anthony Loke (extreme left, seated) said the implications of this are huge and the consequences dire for Pakatan. "Maybe the BN will use this opportunity to amend the federal constitution or re-draw the electoral boundaries," Loke told reporters at the Parliament lobby today.
A motion to suspend Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim for six-months was tabled yesterday in a bid to censure him for claiming that Apco Worldwide - a public relations firm that advises the Najib administration - was linked to the Zionist regime of Israel.
Following this, Anwar was referred to the rights and privileges committee, which recommended that Anwar be suspended, despite not giving him the opportunity to make his defence.
The committee's investigation has been criticised by three Pakatan MPs - Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak), R Sivarasa (PKR-Subang) and Karpal Singh (DAP-Bukit Gelugor).
They have been accused of breaking the embargo on the committee's report and a motion, to be tabled today, aims to suspend them for six months as well.
Loke said speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia had "allowed the federal government to use its majority as it likes".
“Tomorrow, they will pass a motion to suspend Anwar and now three more MPs from Pakatan. I see a hidden agenda here.
“This will mean huge political implications for Pakatan in Parliament because now there are 76 MPs and if four are suspended for the next six months, we will lose our one-third strength in the House. We will only have 72 in MPs,” he said.
'Umno using speaker'
Anwar said Karpal was only informed that he would be recommended for "severe admonishment" for allegedly insulting Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia, the committee's chairman, for walking out of the committee's proceedings.
“You witnessed the drama in Parliament just now. Yesterday, when we were in discussion with Karpal, we only received confirmation that he would be admonished. But today, we were shocked to see these new recommendations of suspensions.
He said this was “unreasonable” and accused BN of attempting to bulldoze its decisions with the majority in Parliament.
“This is why we would like to record our disappointment here and our strong rejection of the speaker's agreement to allow this to happen.
“We are aware of the arrogance of Umno-BN, but to use the speaker's chair as the channel is wrong,” said Anwar.
He also pointed out that Pandikar “looked as though if he had no control” of the House after the argument over the suspensions that unfold in the morning.
“If he cannot control (the Dewan), he should retreat and ask his deputies to take over. But what happened was, as he said, 'Okay, you want speak, you speak'. So he showed his anger, and I think this is not healthy,” Anwar added.
Nasharuddin Mat Isa (PAS-Bachok) said that the move to censure the four MPs was “rather shocking”.
“Suspended for six months without a chance to defend themselves or to debate on allegations that were not taken from the primary source but from a source outside the committee.
“We always dispute the credibility of many institutions in this country but today, we are questioning the integrity of yet another institution, which is Parliament...
"Reform is needed and we promise the people that if we are given the mandate, we will reform Parliament,” Nasharuddin added.
source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/150861
seals: To make way for change if Federal Constitution and EC and other change that can assure Selangor take over and assure BN wins?
What a dirty tactic......it will be good that BN taste their own poison after the next GE. Remember BN (As Rajnikanth said) If you do good for people they will be with you (you don't have to do tricks and so on) but you fail to care for the people who elected you then you face the consequences in next GE.
This gives more reason why Malaysia need 2 party system, soon!
Comments
Constitutional amendment bills must be passed in each House of Parliament “by the votes of not less than two-thirds of the total number of members [MPs] of” that House (Art. 159(3) of the Federal Constitution). Thus, for the Dewan Rakyat, the minimum number of votes required is 148, being two-thirds of its 222 members. The temporary suspension of some MPs from attending its proceedings does not lower the number of votes required for amending the Constitution (i.e. 148) as the suspended MPs are still members of the Dewan Rakyat. If they were no longer MPs, then there would have to be by-elections for their constituencies and that is clearly not going to happen - which proves that even though they are suspended, they are still MPs.
In other words, as the total number of members of the Dewan Rakyat remains the same even if some of the MPs may be temporarily prohibited from attending its proceedings, the number of votes required to amend the Constitution must also remain the same – 148 out of 222.
Thus, although BN may have a 2/3rd control of the Dewan Rakyat without the suspended MPs, they are still not able to amend the constitution, which requires a minimum of 148 votes i.e. 2/3rds of the total number of MPs (including those which have been suspended). As BN only has 137 seats, even with the additional votes from the 6 BN friendly independents (making a total of 143), they still will not have the required minimum 148 votes to amend the Constitution.