By Stephen Puah
KUCHING: Padungan assemblyman Wong King Wei has questioned the legality of yesterday’s meeting of the Committee of Privileges of DUN Sarawak to hear the complaint of breach of Parliamentary privileges against him.
Wong claimed that the meeting chaired by the deputy chairman of the committee, who is also DUN Sarawak deputy speaker Datuk Gerawat Gala in the absence of DUN Speaker Datuk Amar Asfia Awang Nassar, was illegal.
He quoted DUN Sarawak Standing Order 73(6), which he interpreted that at least four members, including the chairman of the committee, must be present to form the quorum.
The committee consists of seven members, including the speaker and deputy speaker. The other members are Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan, Datuk Abdul Karim Hamzah, Datuk Lee Kim Shin and Abdullah Saidol.
The hearing however proceeded and no decision was made and it required the committee to forward its recommendation to the DUN to make a decision.
According to Wong, he would leave it to the DUN members to decide his fate, adding that it was a very sad thing to have happened as he was only suggesting in his speech during the DUN sitting on Nov 11 last year for the DUN’s reform.
According to Wong, he was referred to the Committee of Privileges yesterday after he was accused of challenging the impartiality of the speaker in conducting DUN meetings during his speech on Nov 12.
He said in that portion of his speech, he commented that all the while the speaker had not allowed for any motion from the opposition members to be debated in the DUN.
If found guilty, Wong could be suspended from attending DUN sittings for several months, which Wong said based on past cases, this could be six to 12 months.
“For now, I will just wait for the recommendations from the Privileges Committee to be forwarded to the DUN for the decision and see how it goes,” said Wong.
