COMMENT After a round of controversy on whether he had resigned or not, Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia was given a hero’s welcome when he stepped into the August House to chair the meeting last Monday.

The opposition MPs joined the salutation by thumping the tables. Even Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak) urged Pandikar not to succumb to pressure and resign.

Do the past seven years’ performance of Pandikar as speaker deserve such a cheer?

In a press conference later, he confirmed that he had tendered his resignation letter to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak on March 18, but later retracted it after Najib promised to address parliamentary reforms...