'Sivakumar should have been protected by all means'

The Pakatan Rakyat's Perak elected representatives should have done all that they could to ensure their speaker V Sivakumar was not replaced during the unruly Perak state assembly sitting on May 7.

And their failure to stop Barisan Nasional from successfully putting their man R Ganesan to the post will come back to haunt ousted menteri besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, said DAP leader and Selangor assembly speaker Teng Chang Khim at a forum last night.

The forum titled 'Black May 7, Man in Black' was jointly organised by online news portal the Rock News and KLSCAH Youth at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall. It was attended by about 200 people.

"The speaker's position is crucial for us (Pakatan). We should have protected it by all means but we failed. And this is a huge mistake," said Teng, who is also the Sungai Pinang elected representative.

He added that the BN, with its speaker in place, can now force through a motion of no-confidence against Nizar through an emergency sitting.

He also expressed disappointment that no one from the Pakatan team in Perak sought his advice on how to deal with the situation, especially given his vast experience in handling such matters in Selangor during his days as the opposition state assemblyperson.

Teng added that he knew the ins and outs of the standing orders and has faced attempts by police personnel to throw him out of the Selangor assembly in the days when BN ruled the state.

"But not one (Perak) Pakatan people called me," he said.

He however conceded that Pakatan lawyers had consulted him to find out how things would likely to pan out during assembly sittings.

Pakatan did not look prepared

According to Teng, apart from putting up a physical confrontation, Perak Pakatan representatives should have utilised all other means to stop the removal of Sivakumar, especially by relying on the provisions of the standing orders.

"(The fact that) Pakatan forced two adjournments in four hours is hardly a victory as I have s single-handedly done that in the past," he said.

"At that time, the (Selangor) speaker can't find the suitable standing order to use against me.

"Then they got the wrong one and as a result the speaker has to adjourn twice. I did that all by myself. If they have to achieve the same collectively, that is bad," he explained.

In a nutshell, he said, Perak Pakatan elected representatives were not fully prepared for the critical battle that took place on May 7.

During the May 7 sitting which was called by BN Menteri Besar Zambry Abd Kadir, the BN managed to replace Sivakumar to gain an upper hand in the house.

The political situation in Perak has been shambolic following the battle between BN and Pakatan to rule the state.

Pakatan, which came to power during the last general election, was forced to give up its power when three of its elected representatives defected to become BN-friendly independents in February.

Following this, the Perak sultan instructed Nizar to step down as he had lost the strength in numbers in the assembly. The sultan subsequently appointed Zambry to the post.

Nizar however has refused to step down and instead urged the sultan to dissolve the assembly so that fresh state elections can be held.

The standoff continued and became even murkier when the High Court ruled on Monday that Nizar was the legitimate menteri besar. Zambry is appealing against the decision.

View from the assembly floor

Another speaker at the forum, one of Pakatan's elected representative in Perak, Chang Lih Kang however said that they had done all that they could to stop the BN from assuming full control on May 7.

He said that the BN at the end of the day had the full state machinery and the police to back them up and "we had only our 28 reps".

"They sent in more than 50 police personal to haul Sivakumar out. After that they surrounded him and there was no way we could go in to help," he said.

"But looking back, I am quite proud (of what we had achieved). We held them at bay from 9am to 4pm.

"You all must know something. Among the 28 of us (Pakatan elected representatives), not many can really fight," he said while eliciting laughter from the floor.

He however conceded that the Pakatan team was caught unprepared on that day.

"We had our discussion before hand but our communication was not tight enough. We also lacked a field commander," he said.

He also rebutted Teng's contention that no one tried to contact him for help.

Chang claimed that he tried calling Teng once before the sitting "but you didn't answer the phone".