DEC 30 — Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Johari Abdul has confirmed receiving a formal notice from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) vice-president Datuk Ronald Kiandee on December 27.
The notice requested the Speaker to notify the Election Commission of four vacancies of parliamentary seats in Sabah. The four seats are Papar, Batu Sapi, Ranau, and Sipitang.
Johari said he would fulfil his role as Speaker but indicated that he would need some time.
“I need to do a lot of reading and digging. I will work out the best position on how to respond to this and that would take some time.”
Based on events since December 10 when four Members of Parliament (MPs) and 15 Sabah assemblymen led by Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor publicly declared their “exit” from Bersatu, Johari does need to do a lot of reading and digging.
But he has only 21 days to establish that the four seats are vacant.
Article 49A(3) of the Federal Constitution says that whenever the Speaker receives a written notice from any MP on the occurrence of a casual vacancy among the MP or MPs, “the Speaker shall establish that there is such a casual vacancy and notify the Election Commission accordingly within twenty one days from the date he received the written notice.”
Article 49A has mandated the Speaker to establish the casual vacancy under the anti-hopping provision of the Constitution.
Not the court.
But not unlike the court, the Speaker is the arbiter. He has to be independent, and a fearless arbiter.
That’s why the election of a fiercely independent Dewan Rakyat Speaker must be the first institutional reform under the current government.
Now, back to Kiandee’s notice.
Recollecting the chronology of events leading up to the notice to the Speaker, Kiandee — Beluran MP and the new Sabah Bersatu chief – said Hajiji had announced on November 2 that six candidates from the party would represent GRS to contest in GE15.
Yet Hajiji was said to have declared in a press statement on December 10 that all Sabah Bersatu leaders had left the party.
Kiandee pointed to the first post-GE15 Dewan Rakyat sitting on December 19 during which the Sabah quartet sat as part of the government bloc.
“The act of joining and sitting in a bloc that does not support the Bersatu party led by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who is also Bersatu President and Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin as the Opposition Leader counts as ‘crossing the floor’ and it violates their election promise to the voters,” Kiandee said.
It is curious that Kiandee should rely on “crossing the floor” when his president had cited the report of the special parliamentary select committee looking into anti-hopping laws which said MPs crossing the floor or voting without toeing the party line is not considered as switching parties and would not cause them to lose their status as MPs.
That said, let’s give the Speaker the time and space that’s left for him to do his reading and digging, and to independently and without fear and favour establish whether the four Sabah parliamentary seats are vacant.
May God grant him the strength.
*This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
