The Penang legislative assembly's rights and privileges committee is tight-lipped on its first meeting to discuss charges against opposition leader Azhar Ibrahim who allegedly uttered seditious remarks during last month's sitting.

NONE Journalists who waited for more than three hours at the assembly building were disappointed that Azhar ( right ) was not even present to present his side of the matter.

No decision had been made regarding the Umno assemblyman from Penaga.

Speaker Abdul Halim Hussain, who chaired the meeting, said another meeting will be held soon before deciding when to call Azhar.

However, he did not want to elaborate on the date of the meeting nor any other information on the matter.

Azhar was not available for comment, and committee members only said “no comment” when asked for further clarification on the issue.

Azhar’s predicament came in the wake of the May 6 sitting, while Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was winding up the debate on the motion of thanks to Governor Abdul Rahman Abbas.

CM’s speech interrupted

Azhar had interrupted the speech and threatened a repeat of May 13 and called for the army to take over from the police.

Azhar said since the state no longer had confidence in the police, the army could seize power.

He added that racial riots could recur if the people lost confidence in the government.

His biggest “mistake” was also to mention that a Malay gangster group, ‘Tiga Barisan’ , would be angry if Malays continued to be insulted and would "teach" the state government a lesson.

When asked later, he said he was provoked into making the statements by backbenchers.

However, his antics did not endear him to his BN colleagues, who also condemned his actions.

Azhar then issued a statement to retract his May 13 comment, saying he had no intention of offending the feelings of any party.

Azhar had been embroiled in a controversy before and had been ejected from the House when he refused to retract a derogatory statement he made against Malay Pakatan Rakyat (PR) state assemblymen whom he accused of not looking after the interest of the Malays.

The six members of the committee who were present at the meeting were Sungai Dua assembly (BN) Jasmin Mohammad, Shahabudin Yahya (BN-Teluk Air Tawar), Jahara Hamid (BN-Teluk Air Tawar), Tan Cheong Heng (DAP-Padang Lallang), S Raveentharan (PKR-Batu Uban) and Lau Keng Ee (DAP-Pengkalan Kota).