Sivakumar: State Secretary conspired with Barisan
(The Star) – Ousted Perak Assembly Speaker V. Sivakumar was in fiery mode as he lashed out at Barisan Nasional for the chaos that erupted.
He accused the State Secretary of conspiring with the Barisan to cause his downfall during the proceedings that saw him being replaced by MIC’s Datuk R. Ganesan.
Among other things, Sivakumar hurled criticism at the switching off of his microphone; policemen and outsiders being allowed into the hall; various officials refusing his orders; and pressmen being restricted from covering the event.
“What is all this? This shows there was an agenda to unseat the Speaker. If this is not a conspiracy, I don’t know what is,” he told a press conference at Wisma DAP here yesterday.
Even the Sergeant-at-Arms was not spared as Sivakumar accused the man of practising double standards and refusing to obey his orders.
Sivakumar issued a statement later, saying that he had lodged a police report about being assaulted.
A group of people who were without passes had roughed him up while he was seated in the Speaker’s chair, he said.
“Although I tried to warn them not to prevent me from carrying out my duties, the men choked and dragged me across the floor.
“I was forcefully brought outside the hall. After that, I was confined in a room nearby for more than an hour,” he said
Pakatan Rakyat is also expected to file a fresh application on Monday to quash a court injunction prohibiting people from entering within the 500m radius of the State Secretariat building.
Ipoh Timor MP Lim Kit Siang described Thursday’s assembly as “a day of infamy for Perak and Malaysia.”
In GEORGE TOWN, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng condemned the “wild police action”, accusing the police of “intruding and interfering” in the sitting.
“Perak is now a police state where democracy is dead. It is a dictatorship when duly elected representatives can be treated like this in the State Assembly – the highest symbol of democracy.”
Lim told a press conference yesterday the whole affair was an international joke but he was too sad to laugh.
