Veteran parliamentarian Karpal Singh today argued that the Perak state assembly should be reconvened to endorse the decision of the special privileges committee to suspend Perak Menteri Besar Zambry Abd Kadir and his entire exco.

He said this in reference to section 73(2) of Perak assembly's Standing Order, which provides for speaker V Sivakumar to forward a complaint by an assemblyperson on another assemblyperson to the special privileges committee.

"In my view, he (Sivakumar) should convene the Perak legislative assembly and have the assemblypersons endorse the decision of the special privileges committee," said Karpal.

parliament 180209 karpal singh The Bukit Gelugor DAP MP ( right) explained that when he was suspended from Parliament in 2004 for six months for misleading the House, he was first referred to Parliament’s special privileges committee after which the decision was endorsed and debated in Parliament.

"The problem in Perak now is that there is an unlawful government there and they don't have a speaker. Therefore, he (Sivakumar) is the rightful speaker," said Karpal.

Karpal reiterated that the Pakatan Rakyat government in Perak was the rightful one adding the assembly will have to meet by April.

It will also have to determine the status of the three now-independent councillors Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi (Behrang) and Osman Jailu (Changkat Jering) formerly of PKR and Hee Yit Foong (Jelapang) formerly from DAP whom the speaker had confirmed as having resigned as state assembly representatives.

To ease the confusion, Karpal said the Perak sultan should review his decision and call for fresh elections in the state.

‘Take suspension order to court’

Yesterday, the Perak state assembly's special privileges committee suspended Zambry for 18 months and his exco members for 12 months.

In a statement, Sivakumar said the decision was reached because the seven had failed to provide an explanation for their contempt of the state assembly by declaring themselves menteri besar and exco members.

The suspension means that while BN can technically continue to rule, it cannot convene a meeting of a state assembly for fear that Pakatan would move a vote of no-confidence against the BN government.

slim majority in perak update 040209 Should that be passed, then the assembly could be dissolved paving the way for a state-wide snap elections.

Meanwhile, Dewan Rakyat Deputy Speaker Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said Zambry should either take the matter of his suspension to court or convene the state assembly to nullify the decision.

Wan Junaidi said that Sivakumar should be non-partisan and remain neutral and if he had decided to make changes in the special privileges committee, he should have first consulted the menteri besar.

"The rules for the state assembly are similar to the Standing Order of Parliament under which members of the special committee should reflect the parties’ composition in the House.

‘(But) in the Pakatan Perak government's composition there was only one Barisan assemblyperson in the committee," said Junaidi, when met at the Parliament lobby.

He added that the menteri besar should have reconvened a new special privileges committee to reflect the assembly's composition.

If the current committee was no longer valid, its decision would also be invalid, he argued.