Appeals court defers judgement on Dr Ting’s status
KUCHING: The case over the disqualification of Dr Ting Tiong Choon as Pujut assemblyman by the State Legislative Assembly ( DUN) in May continued in the Court of Appeal here yesterday.
The court will be fixing a date for the delivery of judgement.
In the six-hour marathon hearing yesterday, lawyers for the appellants - DUN speaker Datuk Amar Mohammad Asfia Awang Nasar, Second Finance Minister Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh, the DUN and the Election Commission - argued that it would be absurd if a potentially disqualified member escaped the Election Petition and still sits in the august House.
However, lawyers for Dr Ting, 52, who has been alleged to possess dual citizenship, argued that the DUN did not have the power to disqualify any member for an alleged pre- election disqualification case because such case should only be raised in the Election Court.
The case proceeding went on from 9.30am until 10.30am before the court adjourned it to 2.30pm and ended at 7.15pm.
The DUN on May 12 moved to disqualify Dr Ting because he was alleged to possess Australian and Malaysian citizenship, thereby raising an issue of his loyalty to the country.
Dr Ting on June 7 then filed an originating summons in the Kuching High Court to challenge the DUN decision.
Subsequently, the High Court ruled against the DUN decision to disqualify Dr Ting and in effect restored him as assemblyman of Pujut apart from ruling that the DUN was not a competent body to decide on constitutional issues and that natural justice and interest of 8,899 voters in Pujut had to be taken into account.
On Oct 5, the Court of Appeal in Putrajaya ruled in favour of the DUN by dismissing Dr Ting’s application to strike out the appeal application of the DUN against the Kuching High Court decision to reinstate Dr Ting as Pujut assemblyman.
Hence, the trial hearing yesterday.
Dr Ting was represented by counsels Chong Siew Chiang, Tan Kee Heng, Wong King Wei and Michael Kong.
The appellants’ counsels were Tan Sri Cecil Abraham, George Lo and Shankar Ram as well as Saferi Ali and Mohd Adzrul Adzlan.
Cecil argued in court that the fact that Dr Ting had renounced his Australian citizenship did not cleanse him from disloyalty.
The presiding Court of Appeal judges were Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim, Mary Lim Thiam Suan and Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal.