Thursday, May 7, 2009

Sivakumar cries interference led to him being booted out - Malaysian Insider

IPOH, May 7 — Ousted Pakatan Rakyat speaker V. Sivakumar has blamed interference from outsiders led to him being dragged out and held for an hour by police during a chaotic assembly sitting, adding he does not recognise Datuk R. Ganesan’s election as the new Perak speaker.



“How come there was a directive and outsiders entered the hall, all with name tags when my request to allow seven MPs to enter was denied. It is clear there is interference in the Speaker’s powers,” he told reporters before leaving the Perak state secretariat.

The Tronoh assemblyman had sat on the speaker’s chair from morning until nearly 3pm when he was physically lifted off the chair and dragged out of the chamber by unidentified men in suits and with nametags that just said official.

He had earlier twice rejected Barisan Nasional Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir’s motion to remove him, pointing out the assembly had not started as the Raja Muda of Perak, Raja Nazrin Shah, had not given the royal address.

“I don’t recognise Ganesan as the speaker as I have rejected the motion to appoint a speaker,” Sivakumar said emphatically.

He claimed that he was brought to a room by police and he had fallen twice along the way, adding that eight people have been roughed up with some suffering torn clothes during the melee to drag him out of the chamber.

“I was held in a room for about an hour. It is clear that all directives from the Speaker was ignored. From early on, the Speaker has been blocked including preventing the press from covering the sitting,” Sivakumar said.

No comments: