Sarawak DAP rep booted-out by Speaker
By Joseph Tawie, FMT
KUCHING: Padungan assemblyman Wong King Wei was thrown out of the Sarawak assembly after a dramatic 10-minute verbal slug-out with Speaker Asfia Awang Nassar and other Barisan Nasional assemblymen.
Asfia issued the Wong with marching orders after the later accused him of being biased.
The drama unfolded just before the Minister in the Chief Minister’s Office and Minister with Special Functions Adenan Satem began his winding up speech. Wong had informed the Speaker that his (Wong) speech in the debate had been tampered with.
Asfia then told Wong to sit down. Asfia said the Dewan had not started the order of the day when Wong raised a point of order.
Asfia said any member who wished to raise a privilege complaint was required to give a written notice to the speaker as soon as practicable.
It was up to the speaker to decide whether or not the matter should have the precedence accorded to matters of privilege.
“You drop me a note as soon as practicable then I will decide. This is under Erskine May,” Asfia told Wong.
‘Biased’ Asfia
But an unhappy Wong continued to talk despite the order by Asfia to sit down. Wong’s microphone was also switched off.
This then led to a war-of-words with Asfia and the BN reps on one side and the opposition members on the other side.
During this time, someone was heard uttering that the ‘speaker is biased’, and this made the Asfia angrier.
“Who uttered the word?” asked Asfia.
When Wong admitted saying it, Asfia gave him the marching order.
Wong however remained in the assembly and only left when security personnel were asked to escort him out of the dewan.
Nevertheless, the drama continued for some time as the opposition members continued to ‘attack’ Asfia for his ruling.
The opposition assemblymen only sat down when Asfia threatened to take action.
