Perak DAP flays BN for staging one-day sitting

Perak DAP has accused the state government of staging a one-day state assembly sitting to deny Pakatan Rakyat representatives adequate time to properly debate the 2011 budget and other motions.

Party chairperson Ngeh Koo Ham said the notice for the sitting tomorrow to all state assemblypersons showed that all matters will be completed within a day.

This includes the Question session, amendments to three Bills, a constitutional amendment, a motion to pass the 2011 budget and a motion to use the consolidated development fund.

"The Perak state assembly will become meaningless if these matters are passed in a day without meaningful debate," said Ngeh, who is also the Sitiawan assemblyperson.

Ngeh urge speaker R Ganesan to instead ensure a minimum four-day session and urged his BN counterparts to agreed to this to ensure all matters are properly debated.

Since the BN took over the Perak government in February last year, every sitting had been conducted in just one day, save for that in March, which lasted two days because one day was dedicated to the royal opening.

'BN mocking house'

In October last year, the state budget was passed without any debate during a sitting that lasted just half a day. In August, a RM105 million Supplementary Supply Bill was passed in one day.

Recounting what occurred at previous sittings, Ngeh said Ganesan (right) had made a mockery of the House by limiting opposition leader Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin’s speaking time to just 15 minutes.

He said the proper practice was to allot unlimited time to the Opposition Leader, similar to what is accorded to the menteri besar.

"So long as the matters spoken are relevant and relate to the state of Perak they would be allowed (time)," Ngeh said in a statement.

"On one occasion, I spoke for three hours as Opposition Leader and when Pakatan Rakyat was in government (then Opposition Leader) Tajol Rosli spoke for two and a half hours."

Ngeh added that he expects BN to again get the police to surround the building housing the state assembly, in order to intimidate the opposition.

"They used hundreds of police to surround and control the state (secretariat in the past) to ensure that the assembly is a mere rubber stamp to approve what they want,” he claimed.