Motion by Wong on termination of interim teachers dismissed

AN EMERGENCY motion Wong King Wei ( DAP-Padungan) sought to table regarding the termination of 75 teachers on Oct 31 this year was dismissed at the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) yesterday.

Speaker Datuk Amar Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar said the motion, although of public interest, does not have the urgency and is not definite.

According to him, for a motion to succeed under Order 15, the subject matter must be of public interest, definite and urgent.

Asfia said that it was not definite because it was not known whether the termination was executed by the federal government or the state government as the opening preamble of the motion merely mentioned ‘government’.

He also commented that the question of urgency also did not arise because a few dates were mentioned in a few of the paragraphs in the motion’s draft.

Quoting Erskine May the 24th Edition of the Parliamentary Practices, page 376 line four to seven, Asfia mentioned that the speaker had reminded the House that an application must be directed solely to seek and prove that an issue was sufficiently important, specific and urgent to change the business of the House so as to provide an emergency debate and was not an occasion to debate the issue itself.

Apart from that, Asfia also commented that he had been promised by the Minister of Education, Science and Technological Research Dato Sri Michael Manyin Jawong that the 75 teachers would be given a psychometric test by Nov 30 this year.

Before seeking to table his motion, Wong told the august House that 75 interim teachers from secondary schools throughout Sarawak had their services terminated on Oct 31, due to their failure to pass the psychometric test and interview to be absorbed as permanent teachers.

Wong also said they were openly promised in May by Manyin that they would be re-interviewed and tested starting from August and their services to be extended to December 2017.

However, previous reports indicated that the teachers have yet to hear of any news on when the re-interview and test will occur.

Wong speaks to reporters at the media centre of the State Legislative Assembly yesterday morning. He was announcing his submission of an emergency motion on the termination of service of interim teachers that was later rejected in the afternoon session.