COMMENT On June 28, 2013 the then MIC vice-president S Devamany, a non-elected state assemblypersons, was picked by assemblypersons as Perak state legislative assembly speaker. This election came about after he lost in the 2013 general election for the parliamentary seat of Sungai Siput.

Devamany ran for the deputy president’s post against S Saravanan in the MIC party elections on Nov 6, this year. Saravanan was expected to win but he lost to Devamany.

In the run-up to the election, Devamany openly declared he would quit as state assembly speaker if he was elected as MIC deputy president (as) ‘he felt it required a huge commitment to bring back relevance and confidence to MIC among Indians and Malaysians’.

But after winning the post, he says it's up to the party president and prime minister to decide on his speaker’s post.

He seems to have reneged on his promise he has made - to resign as speaker. Why the U- turn? He made the promise to resign as a bait to get the delegates in MIC to vote him in. He has plainly misled the delegates and the public when they supported Devamany on the basis that he is a principled politician who will live by what he has said.

Nobody forced him to announce publicly the ‘special’ offer (that he would quit his speaker’s post). Or is Devamany using his current position to bargain a more influential post at the federal level, namely a ministerial post?

Devamany is answerable to the state assembly which voted him in. He is wrong to say he leaves his speaker’s post to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his present political master Dr S Subramaniam to decide.

By his unprincipled move not to resign, it shows his lack of understanding on the separation of powers. He should just keep his promise and resign the speaker’s post honourably by tendering his letter of resignation to the clerk of the state assembly. Thereafter, a new speaker ought to be elected.

Public respect

Alternatively, a motion must be moved in the state assembly by concerned assemblypersons to remove Devamany as speaker. For this, the BN must take the lead. This is so to bring dignity to the speaker’s post and to gain public respect.

Remember the Lunas by-election in 2000? In that by-election then MIC president S Samy Vellu openly said if MIC were to lose in the by-election, he would never return to Kuala Lumpur. He not only did not keep his promise, he has been seen in and out of Kuala Lumpur without offering an apology for what he could not live by.

My advice to Devamany is: don't be like Samy Vellu1. You can't have your cake and eat it also! Be man enough to resign honourably.

Devamany must relinquish his speaker’s post without further ado before he is brought to public disrepute.

M KULASEGARAN is MP for Ipoh Barat and DAP national vice-chairperson.