Penang's opposition leader Azhar Ibrahim, from Umno, was suspended from the state assembly this morning over an alleged ‘butt-showing' incident, resulting in a walkout staged by the BN assemblypersons.

Penaga assemblyperson Azhar was suspended for the rest of current assembly session, which ends tomorrow, after he refused to apologise for allegedly showing his rear to Pantai Jerejak assemblyperson Sim Tze Tzin from PKR at yesterday's sitting.

NONE Azhar later told journalists at the House lobby that it was a Pakatan Rakyat plot to eject him from the sitting to stop him from talking.

The drama today started when Sim informed speaker Abdul Halim Hussain that Azhar showed his butt to him when he was ejected from the House by deputy speaker Tan Hock Leong for using unparliamentary words yesterday.

However, Azhar denied showing his butt to Sim. He argued that he was bending down to pick up his bag before leaving the hall.

The speaker then told Azhar that he had viewed the video footage of the incident in private and was convinced that there was an element of truth in Sim's allegation.

Speaker Abdul Halim then told Azhar that he had viewed the video footage of the incident in private and was convinced that there was an element of truth in Sim's allegation.

He also offered Azhar to view the footage with him in private to verify the incident. However Azhar declined the offer and said he will not apologise for the incident.

Abdul Halim then told Azhar to leave the hall and announced that the opposition leader was suspended for the rest of the current session.

Following Azhar ‘s dismissal, BN assemblypersons - all from Umno - staged the walkout. Among the Umno assemblypersons, only Teluk Bahang representative Hilmi Yahaya was absent from today's sitting.

A second walkout

Yesterday, Azhar was ejected from the House by deputy speaker Tan for using unparliamentary words "dua tiga kerat" (literally means: two, three slices) when debating the state Budget 2010.

Azhar had used the words in referring to Pakatan Malay state representatives whom he said had done nothing for the Malays in Penang. Tan ejected Azhar after he refused to retract the words.

All 10 BN assemblypersons had also staged a walkout from the hall in protest.

Commenting on that matter this morning, Azhar said Tan lacked proficiency in the Malay language.

He claimed that he had received many calls from friends and politicians laughing at Tan's claim that the ‘dua tiga kerat' was deemed unparliamentary.

"If the deputy speaker does not understand Malay then he should seek clarification from someone who can better understand the language.

"I was ordered to leave because the deputy speaker could not understand the word," he told journalists.

VIDEO CLIPS

Penang's opposition leader Azhar Ibrahim in state assembly

Part 1 l Part 2 l Part 3