Wong King Wei
KUCHING: Wong King Wei (DAP-Padungan) was given the marching order for saying that the Speaker, Datuk Amar Mohammad Asfia Awang Nassar, was biased.
The episode started after Wong raised a point of order soon after the Speaker finished his communication and called upon Minister of Special Functions in the Chief Minister’s Office Tan Sri Adenan Satem to deliver his winding-up speech yesterday.
Before Adenan could take the floor, the MP for Padungan raised a point of order saying that it
was members’ privilege that his speech should be recorded in total.
In his (Wong) case, he claimed that part of his speech had been tampered with.
At this point, Asfia told him to sit down first saying: “We have not started the order of the day and you are raising a point of order. You raised a point of order when we have not started the order of the day”.
Asfia went on to say that since Wong was raising a complaint on breach of privilege, he told the latter that based on Erskine May, (24th edition Page 273) a member who wished to raise a privilege complaint was required to give written notice to the Speaker as soon as real practicable”.
“After the member has noticed the alleged contempt of the breach of privilege, the Speaker has discretion to decide whether or not the matter should have the precedence accorded to matters of privilege. It goes on and on…you drop me a note as soon as practicable then I will decide. This is under Erskine May,” he said.
Wong was obviously unhappy with the Speaker’s ruling for wanting to raise a point of
order and he continued to speak although the microphone on his table was already turned off.
He remained standing although the Speaker had repeatedly ordered him to sit down and it was at this juncture that the war of words began between both sides of the floor. Someone from the Opposition bench was heard to have mentioned the word ‘bias’ which was possibly referring to the Speaker.
Such remark had seemingly infuriated the Speaker, and to ascertain who uttered the word, he asked the Opposition members, and Wong admitted that he did.
Upon his admission, the Speaker ordered him to leave the chamber but Wong remained despite repeated calls by Asfia for him to leave the august house.
“Sergeant, take him out and if you cannot I will have to call the police from outside,” said Asfia.
The security guard approached Wong but he did not leave at once. Instead, exchange of words from the gallery continued.
That prompted the Speaker to call for order and asked the members of the Opposition to sit down, stating that if they refused he would proceed to take the next step.
The drama lasted for about 10 minutes. The situation only returned to normal after Wong was led out of the chamber, followed by his colleagues.
It was not certain how long he would be out because it was never mentioned.
This was the first marching order given out at the sitting which ended yesterday.