Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia has rubbished Tony Pua's statement that he will not be breaching Parliament's standing orders by holding a live debate with 1MDB president Arul Kanda Kandasamy.

The standing orders stipulate that the speaker is the sole person to interpret the provisions of the standing orders, and not an MP or a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) member, Pandikar said.

"Pua said he did not breach any section of the standing orders. This is merely his interpretation. Do the standing orders say they can be interpreted by any MP?

"It is stated that the speaker needs to interpret the standing orders, while the lawmakers (need to) agree," Pandikar said at a meet the editors-in-chief session last night.

He said this in response to a question on whether he would review his order to Pua ( photo ) to resign from the PAC if Pua pledged that he would not touch on the contents of PAC's hearing into 1MDB during his debate with Arul Kanda.

Pua has claimed that he will not be breaching any standing orders as the 10 questions he has posted to Arul Kanda were not plucked from the contents of PAC's hearing into 1MDB, but based on publicly available information.

Disagreeing with Pua, Pandikar said such publicly available information might have been presented at the PAC proceedings.

"But then, how do you draw a line that Pua is not guilty on the basis that while he is a (PAC) member, he obtained the document elsewhere?" he asked.

"I have made a ruling and if the government as well as the opposition are not listening, then I have no other alternative. I cannot kow-tow. I cannot be a speaker any more, I will balik kampung (go home)," Pandikar said firmly.

The difference between Pua and himself, he said, was that Pua refuses to resign from PAC while he was prepared to resign as speaker.

Pandikar also defended PAC chief Hasan Arifin for accurately interpreting his ruling, by issuing a gag order on Pua.

"It is not just the PAC chief interpreting my ruling correctly. He has to follow my orders. I am the speaker, thank you," he said.

According to him, Hasan would be breaching the parliamentary standing orders if he failed to abide by the speaker's ruling, and he went on to warn that Pua would be suspended from Parliament if he breached the order.

"If action was taken against Gelang Patah (MP Lim Kit Siang), how can protection be given to Pua?" Pandikar asked.

'This is my discretion'

To a question on the timing of the order to Pua, which was issued three days before the live debate slated for Friday, Pandikar said, "I have been very lenient since 2008 (when I took office as speaker). This is my discretion."

Pandikar spent spent half-an-hour at the meet the editors-in-chief session to explain the media coverage arrangements in Parliament and conduct related to media coverage of Parliament news.

He repeatedly emphasised what he shared were from the powerful quotes of world-reknowned speakers and journalists.

Getting statements 'from the side to strike balanced reports' are no longer adequate in the media coverage of Parliament, he said, adding that journalists have to comprehend the standing orders to understand the basis of parliamentary proceedings and rulings.

He then ordered his staff to place copies of the standing orders at the media centre in Parliament, the way copies of the Quran are distributed during Friday prayers.

"Any media report that breaches the standing orders violates democracy," Pandikar ( photo ) declared.

"The media need to be committed to (upholding) the parliamentary system, rather than benefit from sensationalising news."

Several parliaments overseas, he said, had cited their media for contempt of the House and the speaker as a result of manipulative reports.

"However, this has never been done in Malaysia.

"Any wrong interpretation by the media will lead to negative perception against the House by the people. The integrity of a Parliament should be safeguarded," Pandikar said.

"Parliament does not need popularity, neither does Pandikar Amin Mulia. If the government hates me, the opposition also hates me, then I have done a good job.

"We are not the best, but we are not the worst either," he said.

"Of late, we appear to be on the verge of entering a dangerous phase. It seems to be a new arrogance, where the government is perceived as not deserving any respect, while the elected members of parliament are not to be trusted.”

'An unelected god'

Pandikar also took a swipe at the red shirt and Bersih 4 rallies for being 'unelected gods' who fancied themselves as the saviours of the constitutional order and public interest.

"The unelected gods in the judiciary, the media, civil society and the private sector have stepped in to save the nation. They clad themselves in red shirts and yellow shirts, these unelected gods," he said.

He particularly pinpointed Bersih, which circulated postcards and an online petition demanding that the lawmakers of the respondents pressure Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to step down.

"There are no signatures in the letters," he noted.

Pandikar also said that members of the media would be quite uncomfortable working in a pack in the temporary Parliament building for the next three years.

He therefore proposed that each media organisation limits its journalists and photojournalists covering Parliament to three persons.

According to him, the numbers of media members sent to Parliament do not justify the quantity of the reports in the newspapers.

He also announced the plan to move the media centre, which is currently stationed at the Parliament lobby on the ground floor, to the first floor.