YOURSAY 'Pandikar is ignorant of parliamentary processes. There are plenty of precedents in the Commonwealth for minority select committee reports.'

Opposition trio thrown out for defying speaker

Gerard Lourdesamy: Parliament speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia was clearly wrong. A minority opinion ought to have been allowed within the majority opinion in the final report.

But the minority opinion can only touch on issues that could not be agreed upon with the majority and there is no need for two separate reports to reflect the majority and minority view.

It could have been included in one report but divided into two parts. Even judgments of the highest courts in the country sometimes have a majority and minority opinion in the same judgment.

The speaker ought to have decided based on precedent and if the majority of precedents from Commonwealth countries allows for the minority opinion as opposed to the New Zealand parliamentary practice, then the speaker should have allowed it.

The fact remains that the PSC recommendations will be watered down by the EC (Election Commission) because the latter's only mandate is to keep Umno-BN in power for another 50 years.

Isa@1penyu: If and when Pakatan Rakyat wins and have their speaker, they will do the same as seen in Penang and Selangor, where BN leaders are often thrown out when asking on issues that degrade Pakatan.

Anonymous: Selangor Umno dares to say that the speaker of the Selangor state assembly is biased against the opposition.

Indeed, the Dewan Rakyat speaker is the most biased of them all. He has no right to be the speaker of the august House as his bias is so clear, time and time again.

Kit P: Pandikar is ignorant of Commonwealth parliamentary processes. There are plenty of precedents in the Commonwealth for minority select committee reports.

Geronimo: This is typical of BN members who have a penchant to lie. Pandikar just recently told the august House that if anyone who would like to take his place as the speaker, he would be more than willing to give it up to that person if they carried on with their rowdy ways.

Then why didn't he do so (although there was no direct request) with one of the three opposition MPs that were ejected?

Anwar: Speaker bowed to Umno's pressure

Gerard Lourdesamy: Why was the majority so scared to include the minority or dissenting opinion in the main report?

And the so-called independent MP for Wangsa Maju voted with the BN. Is that why the BN insists that the so-called independent ‘frogs' must be represented on every select committee so that the BN has an advantage of 6 to 3?

In other parliaments, the independents who represent less than 10 percent of the membership of the House do not get representation on select committees.

Pakatan is entitled to four seats since it has more than one-third of the seats in the Dewan Rakyat and obtained 51 percent of the popular vote in West Malaysia and 48 percent of the vote nationally.

Even if the speaker rejected the motion on the minority report, how could he close the debate and put the motion on the majority report to vote without giving MPs a chance to debate?

This speaker is the worst in our history. His bias, incompetence and stupidity is clear for all to see.

Going Bananas: If BN representatives are fine with 28 million copies of the minority report to be printed and circulated, then based on the same logic, they should have no objections for the minority report to be printed as advertorial in all the mainstream media for all and sundry to judge if this is indeed a charade as BN claims.

No such thing as a minority report, says Pandikar

1Mockery: There is no need for the opposition to inform the Parliament on the minority report. Disclose it to the public. See whether the majority report is of any use or not.

Let us, the voters, decide on the issue. Anything one-sided will be thrown out by the majority of the voters.

This is the time to teach the BN government that it can cheat some of the people some of the time, but it cannot go on cheating all the people all the time.

Borg Kinaulu: When democracy doesn't work in Parliament anymore, you really can't fault the people for taking democracy to the streets.

Blind Freddo: Do Malaysians always spit the dummy when they don't get everything they want?

This is parliamentary democracy at work, when you are in the minority you miss out. It's a fact of life.

Pakatan should be grateful that its dissenting opinions were recorded in the report. In many countries, they would not have even been included on the committee.

If this is a foretaste of what can be expected from a Pakatan government, then all I can say is "God bless Malaysia, cos Malaysians won't". You are your own worst enemies.

Geronimo: By rejecting the minority report, Pandikar Amin has given the green light for Bersih 3.0 to start. So be it!

Anonymous #59082512: In short, all this while the rakyat had been taken for a ride by this so-called PSC (parliamentary select committee).

It was meant to be a damage-control tool used by Umno-BN to dilute the impact of Bersih 2.0. Nothing more, nothing less - just another ‘sandiwara' (act) from Umno-BN to perpetuate its way of false democracy.

Armageddon: There is no such thing as a neutral speaker. The PSC is a legal way used by BN to cover up its wrongdoings.

The BN will now claim that PSC, which has opposition members in it, has done its job and conclude that the electoral system is free from hanky-panky.

Anonymous: I can't wait for Bersih 3.0.

 

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