Attacks against Azhar Harun vicious and immoral say PN MPs
(New Malaysia Times) – The recent scathing attacks made against the Dewan Rakyat Speaker, Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun by several Pakatan Harapan MPs has earned the wrath of several Perikatan Nasional Lawmakers, who chided these remarks as personal and childish attacks.
In a collective statement, Datuk Kamaruddin Jaafar, MP for Bandar Tun Razak, Dato’ Seri Dr. Edmund Santhara, MP for Segamat, Ali Biju, MP for Saratok and Jonathan Yassin, MP for Ranau said they were appalled by the behavior shown by the PH MPs last week, following the constitutional appointment of Datuk Azhar as Speaker.
They claim that the PH MPs rush to question the credentials of Azhar is puzzling and baseless, adding that the public saw for themselves the absence of decorum when several MPs from the opposition block resorted to name-calling and shouting to disrupt Azhar’s oath-taking ceremony.
“The personal attacks and childish rants coming from the opposition bench last week played out in the full view of Malaysians who have been taught to respect our parliamentary system are symptoms of a larger malaise of political dementia affecting these MPs“, as was stated in the media release.
The signee’s stated that Azhar was appointed in the same manner in which the previous speaker, Tan Sri Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof was appointed in June 2018, in which according to Dewan Rakyat’s Standing Order 4(3), which clearly states: “If only one member or person be so proposed and seconded as Yang di-Pertua, he shall be declared by the Setiausaha without question put, to have been elected“.
The statement goes on to recall that the then opposition MPs had chosen to respect Ariff’s oath-taking process despite their initial protest, which, according to the signees was different from the vile, repulsive, and odious behavior showed by several PH MPs during Azhar’s oath-taking process.
“May we also remind those who are too eager to discredit Azhar and question his well-known non-partisanship, that this was the same individual they had put their trust to lead one of the nation’s most important institutions of democracy, the Election Commission“, read the statement.
The signees of the statement called upon the PH leaders to play their role as opposition members responsibly, reminding them that when PH formed the government, “many Pakatan Harapan MPs had openly claimed they had no qualms reverting to the opposition bench, having been used to such a role for decades“.
