An opposition motion to debate the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam tape in the Dewan Rakyat was shot down today.

Speaker Ramli Ngah Talib rejected the motion, moved by Parliamentary Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang, on the grounds that the matter lacked urgency.

In the motion, Lim said the appointment of former chief judge of Malaya Haidar Mohd Noor ( left ) as the chairperson of the commission and its restricted terms of reference are "most disappointing and a great let down" for Malaysians who had looked forward to a new page for Malaysia's judiciary and administration of justice.

The commission members were revealed by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi last Wednesday.

"Haidar is clearly not acceptable or suitable to be the chairperson of the commission in view of his disgraceful role in the 1998 judicial crisis," he said.

He was referring to the sacking of Lord President Salleh Abbas and two Supreme Court judges George Seah and the late Wan Sulaiman Pawanteh.

Golden opportunity

He described it as the mother of a string of judicial crises which have rocked the country with repeated "erosion and ravages of the independence, impartiality and integrity of the judiciary."

"It is most regrettable that eminent and credible Malaysians whose appointment would have enhanced public confidence in the commission had been omitted," he said.

Lim said there were people like Crown Prince of Perak Raja Nazrin Shah and judiciary members such as Justice Dr Visu Sinnadurai, former Bar Council president Yeo Yang Poh, and senior lawyer Chooi Mun Sou.

He urged the parliament to debate the commission's terms of reference so that the once-in-a-generation golden opportunity should not be missed to put right what had been wrong and rotten with the system of justice.

The commission's terms of reference have drawn flak from various quarters who described them as "narrow".