Umno Youth members fined over Karpal fracas
A parliamentary special committee today found four Selangor Umno Youth members guilty of being involved in a fracas with Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal Singh on Feb 26.
A parliamentary special committee today found four Selangor Umno Youth leaders guilty of being involved in a fracas with Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal Singh on Feb 26.
The committee, chaired by Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia, has recommended that the four be fined a maximum of RM1,000 each. Its decision is expected to be debated on Thursday.
The Youth leaders are Latt Sharizan Abdullah (PJ Utara), Megat Zulkarnain Omar Din (Gombak), Azahari Shaari (Shah Alam) and Ungku Md Salleh Ungku Abd Jamal (Serdang).
Action was instituted under Section 9(e) of the Houses of Parliament (Privileges and Powers) Act 1952 which bars: ‘Assaulting, obstructing, or insulting any member coming to or going from the House or on account of his conduct in the House or endeavouring to compel any member by force, insult, or menace to declare himself in favour of or against any proposition or matter pending or expected to be brought before the House’.
On Feb 26, chaos erupted outside the Parliament lobby when Karpal was mobbed by a group of angry Umno Youth members. The day before, he had called them celaka and accused them of sending him a death threats and two ‘live’ bullets in the mail two weeks earlier.
Karpal, who is wheelchair-bound, later sought consultation with Pandikar Amin to pass a resolution under the Houses of Parliament (Privileges and Powers) Act 1952 to issue warrants of arrest against the Umno Youth members. This was rejected.
Eight MPs charged
The select committee also decided to charge eight other members of parliament for failure to cooperate with the inquiry.
Lim Kit Siang (Ipoh Timor-DAP), R Sivarasa (Subang-PKR), Kamaruddin Jaffar (Tumpat-PAS) were charged for failing to attend the inquiry, despite being appointed to sit on the committee.
The others - Karpal, Fong Po Kuan (Batu Gajah-DAP), Lim Lip Eng (Segambut-DAP), N Gobalakrishnan (Padang Serai-PKR) and Fong Kui Lun (Bukut Bintang-DAP) - were charged for not attending as a witnesses.
The committee's recommendation is to be debated on Thursday. If passed in the House, the eight are expected to be admonished by the speaker under the Standing Orders.
All opposition MPs, had boycotted the inquiry because they disagreed with the decision of the House to form a committee to investigate the melee when they had asked for warrants of arrest to be issued against the perpetrators.
Apart from the speaker, the committee comprises deputy speaker Ronald Kiandee and MPs Tiong King Sing (Bintulu-BN), Fong Chan Ong (Alor Gajah-BN) and Nancy Shukri (Batang Sadong-BN).
