Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia has warned Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timor) to correct remarks in his blog which lambasted deputy speaker Ronald Kiandee for rejecting his motion on Sabah illegal immigrants.

Should Lim fail to do so, he could be liable to disciplinary action similar to that instituted in the past against fellow DAP parliamentarians Karpal Singh (Bukit Gelugor) and Fong Po Kuan (Batu Gajah).

They had been suspended after being critical of the speaker outside the House in previous parliamentary sessions.

Pandikar also told Lim to make corrections to his press statement on the issue, which was similar to his blog posting.

pandikar amin “If you do not correct your blog (post) and media statement, I will be forced to bring attention to the actions taken (against Fong previously),” Pandikar said yesterday.

Last Thursday, Kiandee had rejected Lim’s motion for an amendment to the motion of thanks for the royal address by calling for the establishment of a royal commission of inquiry into the presence of illegal immigrants in Sabah.

ronald kiandee In dismissing the motion, Kiandee said it was irrelevant and disrespectful to the King: “It is most inappropriate to table this motion now because it is rude to say thank you but with a condition at the same time.”

However, Lim argued there had been previous occasions in which such motions of thanks were amended.

“Kiandee cannot be more wrong when he said that it was not proper and ‘tidak sopan’ to amend the motion of thanks,” he said.

Lim argued that Kiandee had “acted out of ignorance” of established parliamentary conventions in rejecting the motion given that an amendment to a motion of thanks for the royal address had been made by him on Oct 12, 1982, although it was voted on and rejected the next day.

Kiandee 'misused and abused' Parliament rules

dap education roundtable meeting 111006 lim kit siang Lim further claimed that Kiandee had “misused and abused” the Standing Orders and that he owes a public apology to the people.

Yesterday, however, Pandikar told Lim that there is a significant difference between the motion he tabled in 1982 and the motion he sought to table last week.

While the earlier motion had begun with the words dan dengan ambil ingatan (while remembering that), last week’s motion had started with the words “by adding the following words to resolve”, Pandikar noted.

In other words, said Pandikar, while the 1982 motion was ‘subsidiary’ to the original motion that Lim sought to amend, last week’s motion was “substantive”.

Lim disagreed, saying that nothing in his motion was irrelevant to the original motion of thanks.

Sabahans reduced into a minority

Kit Siang's motion to debate the illegal immigrants issue last Friday, if allowed, would have been an acid test for Sabah backbenchers.

It came in the wake of rumours that some of the 24 of the ruling Barisan Nasional MPs in Sabah would defect to the opposition over their unhappiness on a number of issues including the lack of action in curbing illegal immigrants in the state.

Incidentally, both Kiandee, who is three-term MP for Beluran, and former minister Pandikar are from Sabah.

sabah illegal immigrant According to Lim, the 30-year problem has reduced Sabahans into a minority in their own home state.

There has been serious allegations that illegal immigrants from neighbouring Philippines and Indonesia have been given identity cards by the authorities to enable them to vote in elections.

There are conflicting accounts from official and unofficial sources on the exact number of illegal immigrants in the state. Most, however, agree that the number is around 750,000, outnumbering the local Sabahans.