KUALA LUMPUR, JUNE 24- Pandikar Amin Mulia (photo) is re-elected to become the Dewan Rakyat Speaker at the 13th parliamentary session today.
He won the seat after receiving 133 votes, as opposed for Pakatan Rakyat’s candidate, former Federal Court judge Abdul Kadir Sulaiman who received 89 votes.
Earlier, Dewan Rakyat secretary Rosmee Hamzah called for voting after both sides of the political divide named their own choice of candidates for the Speaker’s post.
She also urged MPs to write down their names in the ballot papers. Pandikar’s nomination was made by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and was supported by his deputy, Muhyiddin Yassin.
Abdul Kadir’s name was nominated by Bandar Tun Razak MP Khalid Ibrahim and was supported by Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal Singh. However, the House erupted after PAS MP Shaik Hussein Mydin pointed out that Standing Order 4.4 does not require parliamentarians to write down their names on the ballot paper.
“Parliament secretary should not misuse her powers,” said Shaik before the House erupted. Fellow PAS MP Mahfuz Omar supported Shaik’s calls saying it showed that Najib does not trust his own people to vote for Pandikar.
However, Barisan Nasional backbenchers stood up to support Rosmee’s move and accused Pakatan MPs were creating problems out of a non-issue even before a Speaker could be sworn in. “What is wrong in writing names in the ballot paper? Sit down,” said Barisan Nasional MP Bung Mokhtar.
However, DAP MP Gobind Singh Deo stood up and said they only wanted Rosmee to follow the standing orders to the book before swearing in the Speaker.
“The Elections Commission cheated us and now the House is also doing the same,” said PKR MP Tian Chua. After getting himself sworn in, Pandikar urged all parliamentarians to do their jobs to best of their ability in order to bring Malaysia forward.
He also used Pakatan’s clarion calls such as Ubah, Reformasi and Ini Kalilah to urge MP to transform their ways in doing things for the people.
“I believe these clarion calls’ message is for everyone to change our attitudes in doing things. So let us do things differently in the Parliament. Ini Kalilah,” said Pandikar, to the amusement of the MPs.
He also chided Pakatan parliamentarians for the ruckus earlier, saying MPs should not be citing standing orders before getting sworn in. However, PAS MP Khalid Samad did not take the matter lightly and shot back at Pandikar saying they were only pointing an error made by Rosmee.
“If this is the case, let us get sworn in as MPs first before we vote for a Speaker next time,” said an irate Khalid. The session then continued with the swearing in ceremony at 10.45am, starting with Najib and Muhyiddin.
He was latter followed by fellow ministers such as G Palanivel, Nazri Abdul Aziz, Hishamuddin Hussein, Shafie Apdal and others.
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