Malacca State Assembly speaker Amid Nordin was taken to task today by four opposition state representatives who accused the speaker of 'bias' by repeatedly disallowing their motions from being heard.

The assemblymen from DAP, alleged that Amid acted unfairly and failed to provide any reason for rejecting the motions.

"It is unfair, unjust and it was very much a decision based on politics," said Sim Tong Him who is the Bandar Hilir state assemblyman when met in Parliament this morning.

According to Sim, the speaker who is also the Barisan Nasional assemblyman for Alai, had denied their applications for motions for a total of 11 times - six on April 4, 5 and five on Sept 16, 17.

The motions followed all the rules laid out in the state assembly regulations and did not conflict with any provisions of the Federal Constitution, explained Sim.

Among others, the motions touched on the need to set up a committee to investigate projects carried out by the Kolej Islam Melaka over its questionable expenditure, that allocations to state assembly representatives be fair and transparent, and that the state government revives all abandoned projects in order to safeguard its image.

The Malacca state assembly regulations stipulate that an application for a motion must be handed 14 days before and the decision to allow or disallow the motion lies in the hands of the speaker.

Protest memo

Earlier, Sim, and DAP state assemblymen Goh Leong San (Tengkera) and Lim Jak Wong (Bachang) presented a memorandum on their grouses to Sabah state assembly speaker Hasan Alban Sandukong.

Hassan will be chairing the annual speakers conference in Sabah next year and the opposition urged him to raise the matter during the meet.

The fourth complainant, Betty Chew, who is the state assemblywoman for Durian Daun, was not present.

Sim also told reporters that he had approached both Amid and Melaka Chief Minister Mohd Ali Rustam regarding the matter but have yet to see any action.

"We have written to both of them but they do not seem to care about the issue because of their arrogance," said Sim

Another of the opposition's major problem is obtaining a quorum in the 25-strong state assembly.

Despite that the ruling BN coalition has an overwhelming majority of 21 representatives, the DAP opposition said that the assembly was often abruptly adjourned due to the lack of quorum.

At least 10 representatives must be present in the assembly to fulfil the quoram.

Sim claimed that the lack of quorum was engineered by BN representatives to stop the opposition from airing their views.

"We regret that the BN state representatives have on purpose created a situation where the quorum requirement cannot be fulfilled, thus most our motions and speeches cannot be discussed at the state assembly," said Sim.

"If the situation carries on we would have to raise the issue at the upcoming Commonwealth Parliamentarians Association conference."

Both Amid and the chief minister could not be reached for comment