An Umno leader is wringing his hands over what he feels is speaker bias in legislative assemblies of Pakatan Rakyat-ruled states.

arif shah Seberang Jaya assemblyperson Arif Shah ( left ) said their lack of even-handed treatment at times had stirred "dissatisfaction and disappointment' among the BN representatives.

When the speaker acts in an unjust manner, he said, assemblypersons have no means to retaliate as the former has "absolute" authority in the proceedings.

"Sometimes, he punishes us wrongly; when the opposition raises a question to a state executive committee member at an assembly sitting, the replies are not relevant, but the speaker simply says ‘sit down'," Arif complained.

He also griped during a dialogue session at the Penang state assembly yesterday that backbenchers (from the ruling party) took advantage of the standing orders to prevent the BN members from speaking.

Arif said such a situation only happened after March 2008, unlike the times when BN was ruling the state.

Black hand on speaker suspicion roused

At that time, he said, there was only one opposition representative - Phee Booh Poh (DAP-Sungai Dua) - who had been given all the opportunity to speak.

Currently, only if the matter involved a Pakatan assemblyperson, he or she would be given the opportunity to express his or her views, he claimed.

"Now we see a black hand influencing the decisions of the speaker," he told the 60-odd participants at the event.

NONE Arif said he was merely citing an example, but Penang legislative assembly speaker Abdul Halim Hussain, ( right ) who was present, responded immediately.

Abdul Halim said if Arif's remarks had been aired during an actual proceeding, he would have been asked to retract his statement.

If he had not, he would have been asked to leave the hall, among other penalties, he added.

He agreed that a speaker must not only act fairly but appear to be fair.

Abdul Halim, who is Penang PKR secretary and the party's Balik Pulau division chief, was appointed house speaker in 2008.

He contested the Teluk Bahang seat under PKR, but lost to Umno's former Penang deputy chief minister Hilmi Yahaya.

Speaker rises to Pakatan's defence

Abdul Halim said a state assemblyperson could have also been appointed a speaker, or he or she could be chosen from among members of the public.

However, if the speaker was biased, a vote of no confidence may be called against him or her, he added.

"I sit here and if I am not fair, I should resign; If any backbencher misbehaves, I will also ask him to leave the hall," he added.

He reminded the opposition that he had ejected DAP's Dato Keramat assemblyperson Jagdeep Singh Deo from the session in August 2009 for saying "BN robbers".

"We have a code of conduct, we must abide by it or else you may be asked to get out or be suspended (from attending the assembly) just like the opposition leader (Azhar Ibrahim)," he said, pointing at him.

Azhar, who is also Penaga assembly representative and state Umno secretary, had been suspended twice by Abdul Halim.

He was suspended in December 2009 for showing his behind to the speaker in the assembly hall, and again last year for uttering seditious comments touching on the May 13 racial riots.

"But today, I have also invited him (to this dialogue session). We in Penang, are transparent... we want the opposition members to join us in this debate so that they can share their experiences with us," he added.