Chaos in Sabah assembly

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KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah state assembly was adjourned for more than 20 minutes yesterday after a bad-tempered verbal match between an opposition member and several Barisan Nasional representatives.

Speaker Datuk Juhar Mahiruddin had taken over from his deputy, Datuk Johnny Mositun, after the argument had gone on for about 30 minutes.

As the exchange during the debate on the 2011 Budget grew noisier, Juhar decided to adjourn the assembly to give the members time to cool down.

Jimmy Wong Sze Phin (DAP-Sri Tanjong) angered Barisan members when he asserted that the BN victory in the Batu Sapi by-election was “not a handsome win.”

Datuk Ramlee Marhaban (BN-Bugaya) asked Wong how he could conclude this when Barisan had been returned with an increased majority.

When he was criticised for allegedly not following house procedures, Wong said the procedures were “rubbish”.

After Wong argued with several Barisan members, Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Yahya Hussin asked Mositun not to allow the DAP representative to continue speaking.

Juhar replaced Mositun shortly after that and adjourned the assembly.

When the debate resumed, Wong agreed to retract his statement that the assembly procedures were rubbish, but heated up the atmosphere again with allegations against the government.

Ramlee described Wong in unflattering terms, but later denied saying that the opposition member was “not human”.

Juhar said he would refer to the hansard to see if Ramlee used the words.

If he had, he would be given a chance to retract them today, Juhar said. — Bernama