PKR has accused Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia of bias following his decision to disallow four pay-cut motions brought by the opposition bench yesterday.

NONE In a press release today, PKR vice-president N Surendran said that Pandikar was exercising his discretionary powers in an unreasonable and biased.

"The speaker must understand that he is responsible and accountable to the Dewan Rakyat, and not to Najib and the BN political coalition.

"It is a basic principle of Commonwealth parliaments that the speaker must be above party affiliations," said Surendran.

Surendran, who is also a senior legal practitioner, it is the practice of Westminster-style parliaments to allow the opposition to bring motions to reduce a minister's salary on grounds of misconduct or incompetence.

"The pay-cut motion is an established and effective mechanism of control and censure upon the executive. Indeed, it is a time-honoured method to ensure accountability of government ministers to Parliament," he said.

Surendran said that such motions have been passed in the United Kingdom before, the latest being in 1976.

Yesterday, Pandikar shot down four pay-cut motions from the opposition, on grounds that they were abusing the Standing Orders and were intended to cause a mockery.

The four affected motions were:

  • Teo Ni Ching (DAP-Serdang) against Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin over the new education blueprint;
  • Tony Pua (DAP-Petaling Jaya Utara) against Domestic Trade, Consumerism and Cooperatives Minister Ismail Sabri for alleged persecution of human rights NGO Suaram;
  • Mahfuz Omar (PAS-Pokok Sena) against de facto Islamic religious affairs minister Jamil Khir Baharom for issues involving Islamic pilgrim fund Tabung Haji;
  • Mahfuz against Transport Minister Kong Cho Ha for persisting with the Automatic Enforcement System (AES) for traffic offences.