Peeved by the speaker’s decision to eject three Pakatan MPs from the Dewan Rakyat today, Pakatan Rakyat leaders called Pandikar Amin Mulia “Umno’s tool” for putting the final report of the parliamentary select committee (PSC) on electoral reform to a vote without debate on it.

At a press conference at the Parliament lobby, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim (PKR-Permatang Pauh) said the speaker’s action showed “arrogance”.

“He bowed to Umno’s demands... the speaker had rejected the motion (to append the minority report to it) on the basis that it had no precedent... Three times he challenged us to show him a precedent, but when we did, he did not want to listen,” said Anwar.

“They refused to endorse the minority report because it exposes the fundamental issue of a flawed electoral roll,” Anwar said.

NONE Machang PKR MP Saifuddin Nasution ( left ) pointed out that it was incorrect for Pandikar to say that the minority report was not addressed before the PSC.

“It was recorded in the PSC report, on page 53, that the proposal to include the minority report was rejected after a bloc voting was done,” Saifuddin said.

Disappointed as well, Pokok Sena MP Mahfuz Omar pf PAS complained of not getting the chance to reveal attempts at offering foreigners citizenship for votes.

Mahfuz said he had with him a report compiled by a task force set up by PAS to uncover allegations of citizenship for votes.

“This is a disgraceful episode in the history of Parliament. The speaker lost his cool... it is a black dot in history,” said Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timor).

 

Karpal Singh (DAP-Bukit Gelugor) also acknowledged that the speaker’s decision was unprecedented.

“This is the first time that something like this has ever happened. It is a shame on the speaker for prejudging possible reactions on what might happen (if the minority report is included),” said the veteran MP.

However, Anwar added, this would not hamper Pakatan’s aim to unearth irregularities in the electoral system, and the pact’s next move would be to mount a campaign to continue exposing anomalies.

“We need a credible speaker to conduct the affairs of the House,” he stressed.

Print 28 million copies of minority report, says BN MP

Met outside the House, BN MPs expressed regret over Pakatan’s insistence on including the minority report into the PSC electortal reform report.

“The minority report was first raised during the PSC meeting and we clearly told them that it cannot be done because there can only be one  report, but the opposition wanted it.

NONE “So we put it to a vote, six agreed there should be one report but to accommodate the request of the three other MPs, we included some of the points that they wanted in the minority report into the main report itself,” said P Kamalanathan ( left, BN-Hulu Selangor).

Kamalanathan said the altercation, in turn, deprived MPs wanting to debate on the PSC report to offer their views.

 

The opposition presented “misleading facts”, said Abdul Rahman Dahlan (BN-Kota Belud), as it was made clear that the PSC report could not be altered.

“What is a minority report anyway? It is a report to tell the whole world your dissenting views, so go and print 28 million copies and give it to all Malaysians. It can be done, what is the problem?” Rahman jibed, calling the ruckus a “charade”.

The five recommendations in the minority report are for the EC to:

  • Admit that it is illegal to change voters’ constituencies, and return the 31,294 affected voters to their constituencies as of the last general election within 30 days of the PSC report being tabled in Parliament;
  • Remove 42,000 voters from the electoral roll whose citizenship cannot be confirmed by the National Registration Department (NRD) within 15 days of the report being tabled;
  • Investigate the more than 1,000 voters older than 100 years (including one who is allegedly 159 years old) and clean the electoral roll of this within 30 days of the report being tabled;
  • Work the NRD to check on more than 15,000 instances where the gender opf the voters conflicts with their MyKad numbers, where numbers ending with an even number is supposed to be for females, and odd numbers for males, and clean the electoral roll within 30 days of the report being tabled; and
  • Change the status of some 45,000 spouses of police officers from postal voters to normal voters because they are not eligible to be postal voters, within 15 days of the report being tabled.