KUCHING: The State Legislative Assembly (DUN) yesterday resolved to turn to the Federal Court to appeal the decision of both the Court of Appeal and the High Court to reinstate Dr Ting Tiong Choon as the Pujut assemblyman.
Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah moved a motion to bring the appeal to the apex court which saw 68 members of the august house voting in favour while seven others voted against it.
Prior to the open vote, there was a heated exchange of words between Abdul Karim and Wong King Wei (DAP-Padungan) — marking the first time both honourable members lost their cool in the House.
In his winding-up, Abdul Karim said the issue related to the privileges of the House and hence the House should appeal to “the apex court of the land which is the Federal Court”.
“We have not reached that court as yet. It is every right of this august house to appeal until the decision of the apex court has been obtained.
“We are not questioning the issue that Member of Pujut has been elected, that the people voted for him; yes, we do agree. But the people have not been informed of what has transpired, and the qualification of someone to be elected.
“We don’t want to have a stranger in the House, somebody who is not qualified to sit in the House,” he pointed out.
His remarks prompted Wong to seek point of clarification but Deputy Speaker Dato Gerawat Gala did not grant the opposition member the floor.
Wong was heard shouting in the background while Abdul Karim responded: “You sit down, I’m not giving you way. Come on, sit down. I just saw you slamming your Standing Order on the table, you have no respect for the House. You sit down, you just sit down.”
Wong, whose microphone was not switched on, did not seem to heed the advice of the minister, who repeated: “You have no respect for the House. You don’t even deserve to sit down here.”
As Wong persisted in putting his points forward, Gerawat stepped in, saying: “Padungan, Padungan” before he was interrupted by Abdul Karim who said in a raised voice: “It’s my winding-up. I’m not giving way.”
When Abdul Karim finally regained his floor, he proceeded to say: “This is not personal action against Member of Pujut, not a political persecution. This action is to protect the dignity and integrity of this august house.”
He said “everybody knows and the court also knows” that Malaysians ought not to hold dual citizenships.
“Why he (Dr Ting) applied (for Australian citizenship), he should be in the know that it is an offence under the Malaysian law,” stressed Abdul Karim
This immediately prompted Wong to express his legal opinion, which could be heard in the background.
“I’m not trying to debate with you. Malaysia doesn’t practise dual citizenships,” said the minister who kept on asking Wong to ‘sit down’.
Wong declined to pull out and spoke at the top of his voice instead. Abdul Karim then challenged Wong to bring up the matter in court if the latter was not happy with his remarks.
Wong is believed to have demanded the minister to further clarify his point, which provoked the minister to quip: “Padungan, you are not the only lawyer here, okay.”
Even though Gerawat ordered the minister to proceed with his winding-up speech, Wong persisted in voicing his legal points.
When the Chamber became somewhat chaotic Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas abruptly applied Standing Order 31(1), requesting Gerawat to stop Wong from interrupting.
But that move did not help at all as Wong was still trying his level best to make his point.
This appeared to have riled up the minister, who cried out: “This is not your floor. I’m the one winding up. You sit down, you sit down.”
Gerawat had to read out Standing Order 42 to warn Wong that he would order him to leave the Chamber if he refused to listen to the order.
At that point, an unidentified member was heard saying: “That is what he wants. He wants to be kicked out, that’s why he doesn’t want to sit down.”
Abdul Karim continued: “Two of the judges expressly held that the act of acquiring a foreign citizenship has the effect of disqualifying that person to be elected as a member of this House. That answers you (Wong), I don’t have to…”
His speech was interrupted by Wong whose voice could not be heard very clearly due to the turned-off microphone.
Gerawat then cautioned that he would have to ask Wong to leave the Chamber if Wong persisted on speaking without the order granted by the Chair.
Abdul Karim, who was apparently irritated by Wong’s shouting, also started shouting back at Wong to the extent that the minister’s microphone was also switched off.
When both members finally cooled down, Abdul Karim concluded his winding-up speech by asking members of the House to vote for his motion.
Tabling the motion earlier, the minister said his motion was not intended to be a personal vendetta against Dr Ting.
“Nor is this a political persecution against the said member. This is about the powers and obligation of members of this august house to protect the sanctity of the House.”
Abdul Karim said the House was concerned whether having acquired Australian citizenship had disqualified Dr Ting from being elected as a member of the House.
He added that the House was equally concerned whether Dr Ting’s act of subsequently renouncing the foreign citizenship had the effect of remedying the disqualification. The minister pointed out that the Court of Appeal was of the view that the renunciation of Dr Ting’s Australian citizenship had no effect on his disqualification to be elected as a member of the House.
“The only thing is that, the judges differed in their opinion as to whether this House is empowered to do anything about it. By a majority, the Court ruled that this House did not have the power to act as it did.
“Although the House is aware that a person who is not qualified to be elected as a member, through some chains of events, actually sitting in the House, there is nothing that the House can do about it.
“Let me remind all members of this august house that in their oath before taking their seats as member of this House, each and every one of us had pledged to solemnly swear that we will preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the State of Sarawak,” he said.
Abdul Karim said to not do everything that the law provides in this particular instance would mean that members of the House “are accepting that they are powerless to prevent a person who is disqualified from remaining to sit as a member of this House”.
“This would be a gross failure to discharge the pledge as mentioned above. It is for this and only for this reason that I am moving this motion in the hope that all members including those from the opposition realise that it is their duty as members of this august house to do all they can under the law to protect the sanctity of this House,” he added. -TheBorneoPost
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