A DAP member of parliament (MP) who was issued a three-day suspension from Parliament for ticking off the House Speaker said he does not regret being punished for taking a stand against "disgraceful" ministerial conduct.

In statement to malaysiakini today, MP for Kota Melaka Kerk Kim Hock described his suspension as a "harsh punishment for a justified protest,".

"I do not regret being suspended for taking a strong stand against disgraceful ministerial behaviour, which I believe, even the prime minister himself will not condone," said Kerk.

"I have been elected by the people to speak for them and I do not attend Parliament meetings just to speak for the record. The government must account for its actions and justify its policies," he said.

Kerk denied he had been stubborn or that he had raised his voice on purpose during Tuesday's Parliament sitting but admitted that he did accuse the Speaker of siding with deputy finance minister, Chan Kong Choy.

In the incident, Kerk had posed a question to Chan regarding the RM50,000 allocation to Barisan Nasional MPs for 'non-official purposes' and queried whether the MPs are required to produce receipts for such expenses.

When the Speaker responded that the deputy minister had the right not to answer, Kerk replied, "As a veteran Speaker, you should uphold the honour of the Parliament House."

Kerk kept on insisting for an answer despite warnings from the Speaker and was subsequently slapped with the three-day suspension

Not take sides

Relating his side of the story, Kerk said he had waited patiently for Chan to answer his question but the latter abruptly stopped at 5.30pm claiming he had finished replying.

"I was rather shocked at such an abrupt end and immediately protested to the Speaker," he said.

Kerk added that in making his protest, he had urged Speaker Mohamad Zahir to direct Chan to reply to the issues he had raised but the latter replied that the deputy minister had the right not to answer.

"Following this, I told him to'uphold the honour of the House' as he was a veteran speaker, I also requested him 'not to take sides' with the deputy finance minister," said Kerk.

According to Kerk, he had to protest in a loud voice because his microphone was not switched on.

"The Speaker warned me that I would be ordered out if I did not sit down," he said, adding that he was prepared to be thrown out and continued to persist with his complaints.

Kerk stressed that it was the duty of the Speaker to do what was necessary, which included directing ministers to reply to queries raised by MPs.

Narrow interpretations

"Instead, the Speaker kept emphasising a point under the Parliamentary Standing Orders that a minister had the right not to reply,"said Kerk.

He added the Speaker, in carrying out his duty and responsibility should not just rely on the Standing Orders, "or worse, make narrow interpretations of them".

When chairing parliamentary meetings, the Speaker must be guided by democratic principles and parliamentary conventions, said Kerk.

Kerk said he had used the 20 minutes allotted to him to raise five issues which were the recent Internal Security Act (ISA) arrests, a new deal for mother tongue education and the cancellation of Chinese education activist Tan Seng Hin's social visit pass by the Sarawak state government.

The other two issues were the non-extension of former Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) director-general Ahmad Zaki Hussein's term and the RM50,000 fund allocation to BN MPs for 'non official' purposes.