MPs express appalment over PH MPs’ attacks against Azhar Harun

Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun takes his seat as the Dewan Rakyat Speaker after the oath taking ceremony on July 13.

KUCHING: Four MPs have expressed their appalment over the behaviour of Pakatan Harapan (PH) MPs last week following the constitutional appointment of Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun as the Dewan Rakyat Speaker.

Bandar Tun Razak MP Datuk Kamaruddin Jaafar, Segamat MP Datuk Seri Dr Edmund Santhara, Saratok MP Ali Biju and Ranau MP Jonathan Yassin said they were puzzled by the claims and baseless allegations being repeated by a section of Pakatan Harapan MPs in their rush to question Azhar Harun’s credentials.

“The personal attacks and childish rants coming from the opposition bench last week, played out in the full view of Malaysians who have been taught to respect our parliamentary system are symptoms of a larger malaise of political dementia affecting these MPs.

“The public saw for themselves a total absence of decorum when opposition MPs indulged in name-calling and shouting to disrupt Azhar Harun during his oath taking,” they said in a joint statement today,

Among others, it was claimed that Azhar Harun’s appointment was not put to vote.

They also pointed out that clearly, the MPs were either ignorant or deliberately chose to sideline Dewan Rakyat’s Standing Order 4(3), which clearly stated that, “If only one member or person be so proposed and seconded as Yang di-Pertua, he shall be declared by the Setiausaha (secretary) without question put, to have been elected.”

The four MPs also noted that it was this very rule which the Pakatan Harapan MPs adhered to in naming Tan Sri Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof as the speaker in June 2018, as he was the only candidate for the post.

“Yet, the then-opposition MPs had chosen to respect Mohamad Ariff’s oath-taking despite their initial protests, unlike the vile, repulsive and odious behaviour shown by some of the Pakatan Harapan MPs when Azhar took oath last week.

“May we also remind those who are too eager to discredit Azhar Harun and question his well-known non-partisanship, that this was the same individual they had put their trust in to lead one of the nation’s most important institutions of democracy, the Election Commission,” they said.

The four MPs also called upon Pakatan Harapan leaders to play their role as opposition members responsibly.

“After all, when they were in the government, many Pakatan Harapan MPs had openly claimed they had no qualms reverting to the opposition bench, having been used to such a role for decades,” they said.

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