Call for S’wak Assembly Speaker to step down

KUCHING: Speaker of State Legislative Assembly (DUN) Datuk Amar Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar is urged to step down to pave way for reform of the legislature.

Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Chong Chieng Jen said Asfia, whom he described as having overstayed his welcome and effective role as a speaker, should relinquish his position.

“He should stop lording over members of the DUN. There should be more liberal and open debate, and also the whole DUN institution has to be reformed.

“He has been there for years. In fact, how the DUN operates has been rendered a rubber stamp of the Sarawak government, so it defeats the whole purpose of the legislature.

“In fact, the person who ought to be referred to the Privileges Committee (of DUN Sarawak) is the speaker himself because he has allowed the DUN to be made a rubber stamp of the (Sarawak) government,” he said when met by journalists after a working visit to a Perodua showroom at Jalan Sherip Masahor here yesterday.

He was prompted for comments on Padungan assemblyman Wong King Wei who was recently summoned for hearing before the Privileges Committee on the referral initiated by Asfia on Nov 12 last year.

Asfia alleged that Wong had challenged his impartiality in conducting the meeting.

Chong, who is Stampin MP and Kota Sentosa assemblyman, said a suspension order was likely to be made against Wong due to ‘how the whole system operates’.

“In fact, the proceeding itself is wrong. It has gone against the rules of natural justice and the Standing Order (SO) of the DUN. As I understand from King Wei, that when the Privileges Comitteee convened, the chairman who is the speaker was not there, he did not chair.

“Of course, he’s the complainant, he should not be chairing. But the whole principle that underlies that SO is that, it is not for the speaker to refer any assemblyperson to the Privileges Committee.

“The speaker doesn’t speak, he’s supposed to be an impartial person. He is not supposed to initiate any motion to refer someone to the Privileges Committee, by the mere fact that he is the chairman of the Privileges Committee.

“If anything is to be done, it should be the ministers and he will chair the committee. He shouldn’t be the complainant, there is no reason. It’s a serious breach of natural justice and serious contravention of the non-compliance with the SO,” he added.

Chong said they were looking into the possibility of referring the whole proceeding to court by way of judicial review.

“Just to jog his (Asfia’s) memory, he made a terrible decision before that. And the High Court and the Court of Appeal have ruled his decision as unlawful.

“It is quite a shame that the highest law-making body in Sarawak is found by the court to have acted against the law, and he’s the culprit. A second time may happen again in King Wei’s enquiring proceeding.”

He said what Wong said in the august House in Nov last year was a general comment; that the DUN had to be reformed to enhance its role to watch over the executive.

“We have three arms of government - the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, at both state and parliamentary level. The roles of the legislature are not just to pass legislations but also supervise and be a watchdog against the executive.

“That’s why after the change of (federal government), we have formed many Parliamentary Select Committees consisting of backbenchers from the opposition and the government, tasked to oversee the running of certain important ministries.

“That is the role of the legislature. What King Wei was talking about is advocating for the same reform to be instituted in the Sarawak DUN, basically to play a check-and-balance on the executive power.

“I think this is a very fair suggestion and I see no reason why any fair-minded speaker would refer an assemblyman who made such a suggestion to the Privileges Commmittee,” added Chong.