Former Penang legislative speaker Law Choo Kiang today announced that the chief minister and assemblypersons will no longer receive privileges accorded to their posts as the state assembly has officially dissolved today.

Law said the move is provided for under the 1980 state enactment on Administrative and State Assembly Members.

"In line with Item 7(2) of the state constitution, the services of the chief minister, Penang assembly speaker and state executive council members will end with the dissolution of the state assembly," said Law at a press conference at the state legislative assembly lobby.

"The CM and his state executive council will now only be paid allowances as caretakers until the new chief minister and state excos are appointed (after the polls)," he added.

"The same goes for the state assembly speaker, he will only an allowance until the new speaker is appointed," Law said.

This follows the announcement by caretaker chief minister Lim Guan Eng yesterday that the Penang state assembly would be dissolved today, three days after the dissolution of Parliament on April 7.

According to Law, the new state legislative assembly must convene in 120 days.

At the press conference, Law confirmed that he has received the official proclamation of the Penang assembly dissolution signed by governor Abdul Rahman Abbas from state secretary Farizan Darus today.

The proclamation is in line with Phase (2) Item 19 of the Penang state constitution.

Law said that as a caretaker government, the duties and responsibilities of the officials are limited to "routine and administrative" matters only.

"A caretaker government cannot make policy decisions that would bind the new government," said Law, who is also state PKR deputy chief.

Law noted that Lim and his state exco will return their official cars to the state secretariat tomorrow at 12.30pm, Level 2, Komtar.

He thanked the governor, Lim, the state excos, all the government department heads and staff, local councillors, NGOs, state agencies and the media for giving his team the best cooperation they could during his term as speaker which started on June 28, 2013.

Reasonable grounds

Law expressed his satisfaction with the performance of the state executive councillors, both government and opposition backbenchers, during their term.

"I am also satisfied with my performance as I tried to the best of my ability to give both sides ample space and opportunity to debate their issues.

"We have carried out some reforms, have given both sides of the divide the most time to debate when the assembly sits while the state excos were given enough time to answer all the questions put forward by the backbenchers," he added.

Law stated that during his term, the opposition, which consists of 10 Umno assemblypersons, were allowed to file motions and debate on issues related to sea reclamation activities and environmental matters at the state assembly.

He added that although some of the opposition motions were rejected, they were done so based on reasonable grounds.

He laughed when recalling that during his term, three assemblypersons – Roslan Saidin (BN- Pinang Tunggal), Shah Headan Ayoob Hussein Shah (BN-Teluk Bahang) and RSN Rayer (DAP-Seri Delima) were ejected from the state assembly proceedings for not complying with the standing order of the day.

"During my term, I tried to organise activities and programmes to bring the people, including NGOs, students and associations closer to the Dewan," he added.

"Most importantly, everyone has given me the necessary cooperation which we needed to run the state assembly efficiently.

"All the state assemblypersons were good, and I wish to apologise if I have offended anyone during the course of my work," he added.