Minister in Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz said that it would be "dishonourable" for BN to seek Batu MP Chua Tian Chang's disqualification as an elected representative.

"As a fellow MP, it is not right for me to put a motion to seek his removal. We are all honourable members of the house," Nazri told reporters at the Parliament lobby today.

NONEHe said Tian Chua's status was best decided by the speaker of the house.

"Moreover, I've to take cognisance from the first judge's decision on the matter... the judgment showed that he had lowered the fine so as not to disqualify him," Nazri said.

The Court of Appeal on May 23 dismissed Tian Chua's appeal against conviction for obstructing a police constable from performing his duties and maintained the fine of RM2,000 imposed on him by the High Court.

The High Court in Kuala Lumpur on June 17, 2010, dismissed Tian Chua's appeal against his conviction on that offence by a magistrate's court in October last year, but reduced the fine of RM3,000 and six months' jail to a RM2,000 fine or two months' jail.

In reducing Tian Chua's fine to RM2,000, Justice Ghazali Cha said he adopted the 1993 Supreme Court decision in Public Prosecutor vs Leong Yin Ming that only a fine of RM2,001 or more would result in automatic disqualification.

Nazri was responding to a Malaysian Insider report that quoted an anonymous BN backbencher that a motion to disqualify Tian would be made.

"My personal take on this is that the matter, whether he is still a member of the Parliament or not is not for us to decide and to pursue.

"If he has been fined by the court, it's the duty of the Speaker to inform the Election Commission that because he (Tian Chua) was fined more than the required amount, as a result of that the seat could be declared vacant," said Nazri.

Nazri, who is the de facto law minister, explained that his ministerial powers would only take him as far as tabling a motion to suspend a MP for breaching Parliament's Standing Orders.

"That is all. To remove a fellow member as a MP is beyond me. It's not for me. Even the backbenchers cannot do it, I would advise them not to because it's not an honourable act," he said.

However, it is understood that the backbenchers were toying with the idea following deputy speaker Wan Junaidi Jaafar's statement that the Dewan Rakyat has to be informed by the members if Tian Chua had been convicted and thereby stoods the chance of being disqualified.

'We can't deny Baru of their rep'

Under Article 48 of the federal constitution, an MP will be disqualified if he or she is fined more than RM2,000 for an offence committed.

"Whatever the rationale behind the (High Court) judge's decision is not my concern, but I take cognisance of his decision and because of that, I feel that Tian should not be disqualified," said Nazri.

Among other reasons, Nazri added that the Dewan Rakyat was in its third year now and a by-election would not be called if a seat was declared vacant.

"Which means we are going to deny Batu of a representative in Parliament, which in fairness the government feels we should not deny the voters of their legally elected representative during the 2008 general election.

"So because of all these, I have decided against any move on the part of the government to disqualify him," Nazri added.

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