KUALA LUMPUR: Barisan Nasional (BN) MPs staged a walkout from the Dewan Rakyat today after calls for the Speaker Datuk Mohamad Ariff Yusoff to reverse his decision to eject MIC vice-president Datuk C. Sivarraajh from the august house were not heeded.
Sivarraajh, who won the Cameron Highlands seat in the general election, was asked to leave the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday after Mohamad Ariff claimed the former was “a stranger in the house” following the Election Court’s ruling last week that the seat was vacant.
Unhappy with the speaker’s decision, Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) asked that a ruling be made immediately on the matter, but was dismissed.
Mohamad Ariff said he needed some time to study the court’s full decision, and that he had also informed this to Sivaarrajh and his lawyer earlier.
His statement was however not met well by the opposition members, which led to a 30 minutes chaos in the Dewan Rakyat, with the opposing bench demanding that Sivaarrajh be reinstated into the house until a final decision was meted out by the court.
They argued that according to Section 36 of the Election Offences Act 1954, the MIC man has up to 14 days beginning the court’s ruling on Nov 30 to appeal the decision, and that he should remain the rightful parliamentarian at least until then.
Khairy Jamaludin said as such, Sivarraajh should have the right to continue siting in parliament proceedings until the appeal period was over and a final decision was made.
“You must reinstate him today, and apologise for your earlier decision,“ he said.
Datuk Seri Ronald Kiandee (BN-Beluran) cited previous court cases involving Pakatan Harapan MPs, including for the Pandan seat, claiming they were allowed to remain in the dewan as long as the legal process was not over.
Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (BN-Bagan Datuk) also demanded the reinstatement of Sivaarrajh into the dewan, saying: “Based on existing laws, he is still qualified to take part in the proceedings, and I ask that he be allowed in.”
Following this, Mohamad Ariff said he would only come up with a ruling on Monday, claiming that court rulings and the constitution were not always as straightforward as it seemed and might sometimes be complicated, which required greater scrutiny.
Khairy, who was not satisfied that a ruling was not made immediately, said: “If you do not overturn your earlier decision, I’m afraid it will leave a black mark on your speaker’s career. Shame on you.”
“This is not question of what offence he had allegedly committed, but whether or not he loses his qualification to be in this dewan now,“ he added.
After further verbal attacks by the opposition, Mohamad Ariff stood his ground and maintained that a ruling would only be made on Monday, and that his previous decision (to boot Sivaarrajh) remained.
