PN reconvenes Malacca assembly without opposition to install own speaker

• UPDATED 2.08PM | Added comments from Chief Minister Sulaiman Md Ali on the election of new speaker Ab Rauf Yusoh.

Perikatan Nasional (PN) representatives today reconvened the Malacca state assembly sitting during the absence of opposition assemblypersons and voted in state Umno liaison chief Ab Rauf Yusoh as the new Speaker.

This happened barely an hour after the sitting was adjourned by Speaker Omar Jaafar, who is aligned to Pakatan Harapan, following a heated argument over Omar's rejection of a motion to vote him out from the assembly.

According to government media journalists who are allowed to cover the sitting from inside a video-link room at the Seri Negeri Complex in Ayer Keroh, the sitting was reconvened with Ghazale Muhamad (Rim-Umno) as the acting speaker to initiate the voting process.

"A total of 16 assemblypersons voted in support of Rauf to become the new speaker," said one of the journalists inside.

For the record, only government media representatives were allowed inside the video room, while others were barred to cover the sitting.

At around 10am, Omar ordered for today's sitting to be postponed barely a half-hour after it started after a shouting match erupted between him, Idris Haron (Sungai Udang-Umno) and several Pakatan Harapan assemblypersons.

It started when Idris told Omar that he was not fit to carry out the duty as speaker of the assembly as he no longer commands the support of the majority assemblypersons.

This had immediately sparked a shouting match between the two and joined by several other Harapan assemblypersons who called for Idris to be kicked out from the sitting.

According to several video recordings provided by deputy speaker Wong Fort Pin (Bemban-Harapan), someone had called Idris "biadap" and told him to follow the agenda of the meeting that had been set by Omar.

However, Idris refused to back down from his request to have a voting session to oust Omar from the State House, showing the assembly's Standing Orders book to make his point.

He later flung the book towards Omar, who then ordered for the sitting to be adjourned to another date, which is yet to be determined.

The Malacca Harapan state government fell on March 2 when two of its assemblypersons defected to join PN, which then formed the government with a total of 17 representatives.

The Malacca state assembly has a total of 28 seats.

The state's Chief Minister, Sulaiman Md Ali (Lendu-Umno) had recently filed six motions with Omar for deliberation in today's assembly sitting.

However, four of the motions were rejected by Omar, including motions seeking to remove the latter as the speaker and to elect his replacement.

Speaker absent from sitting allows move - CM

Sulaiman, when met by reporters afterwards, claimed that Omar did not adjourn the sitting today properly and thus allowed them to make the move to elect a new speaker.

According to him, Rule 17(5)(a) of the House's Standing Orders stated that a state assembly sitting can only be postponed through a motion that is passed by the assembly.

"But there was no motion to postpone the sitting today. And at the moment he left the assembly, it means that the speaker was absent from the sitting.

"This allowed for a temporary speaker to be appointed, and we immediately elected a new speaker after that," he said.

Sulaiman said PN made the move after seeking advice from the state government's legal adviser, who pointed them to the rule for adjournment.

The chief minister added that he had sent in motions to replace the speaker to Omar out of respect to the latter as the speaker of the day but this was instead rejected.

However, such motion can be prompted verbally at a state assembly sitting as the election of a speaker must be done inside the State House, Sulaiman said.

Earlier, Idris, when met by reporters, had said the PN government was prepared to physically drag Omar out of the House during the next sitting.

"The (state government's) legal adviser has gotten the proceeding on how to remove the speaker. There is a way, which is to let the sitting to go on until a time, until a motion is called to vote for (removal of the speaker).

"If the speaker still does not want to (leave), then we will take him outside," he told the media when met after the sitting was postponed by Omar.

However, the PN government later opted for an "ambush" by reconvening the assembly sans Harapan representatives.

Sitting discussed several agenda

Rauf later told a press conference expressing his gratefulness to all the state assemblypersons who have elected him as the new speaker of the House.

According to him, the sitting that resumed after his appointment had discussed several matters, including important appointments by the state assembly.

This includes appointing Tangga Batu Umno division chief Mohamad Ali Mohamad as Malacca representative to the Dewan Negara.

However, when asked to comment on the ruckus that happened in the assembly earlier following the rejection of Sulaiman's motions, Rauf declined to comment.

"It is not in my knowledge," he said

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