By S Retnanathan
PETALING JAYA: Opposition members of parliament have come up with various reasons why the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) was adamant in wanting the suspension of four Pakatan Rakyat MPs from the Dewan Rakyat for six months.
They say suspension of the four MPs would result in the opposition block – Pakatan Rakyat – losing its grip in the Dewan Rakyat as the absence of the four elected representatives would give the BN back its two-thirds majority in the House.
The ruling BN lost its long-held two-thirds majority in Parliament after the March 8, 2008 general election. It also lost five state governments in the polls, which created a new political landscape for Malaysia.
Currently, there are a total of 222 parliamentary seats. Following the 2008 general election, the BN had managed to capture 137 seats as opposed to Pakatan's 76. The Sabah Progressive Party has two seats, while the Socialist Party hold one seat. The remainder six parliamentary constituencies were being held by independents who favour the ruling BN.
With the suspension of the four, proposed in Parliament today, the opposition, meaning Pakatan, would only hold 72 seats, two constituencies short to thwart the BN from achieving its two-thirds majority.
The two-thirds majority is needed by the ruling coalition to make any amendment to the Federal Constitution as well as approve the redelineation of electoral boundaries, several opposition leaders alleged.
Yesterday, the BN-led government proposed to suspend Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim (PKR-Permatang Pauh) for misleading the Dewan Rakyat, when he linked Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's 1Malaysia brainchild to the One Israel campaign.
He also accused Apco Worldwide, a public relations company hired by the Najib administration, of having links with the Zionist state. The international public relations firm had denied these allegations.
Today, the ruling coalition proposed three other Pakatan lawmakers be suspended for six months pertaining to the Apco row.
The three – Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak), R Sivarasa (PKR-Subang) and Karpal Singh (DAP-Batu Gelugor) – will likely face suspension for leaking details on the Rights and Privileges Committee probe on Anwar.
The BN gave notice to suspend the four MPs for six months.
This move had drawn the ire of several opposition MPs including former Perak Menteri Besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin (PAS-Bukit Gantang), who through his Twitter message, said: "By suspending 4 PR MPs, BN shall also get the five independent MPs to get simple two-thirds majority."
"They (the BN) can even delineate and add new seats from Sabah (and) Sarawak," he said.
Tony Pua (DAP-Petaling Jaya Utara), another vocal opposition MP in his Twitter message, questioned if BN was trying to "amend the Federal Constitution sometime before the next (general) election thus the need to suspend four Pakatan Rakyat MP at once to deprive the opposition block its one-third strength."
Liew Chin Tong (DAP-Bukit Bendera) also posted a similar message in his Twitter post.
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CONSTITUTIONAL EXPLANATION FOR WHY BN HAS NOT REGAINED TWO THIRD MAJORITY
Constitutional amendment bills must be passed in each House of Parliament “by the votes of not less than two-thirds of the total number of members [MPs] of” that House (Art. 159(3) of the Federal Constitution). Thus, for the Dewan Rakyat, the minimum number of votes required is 148, being two-thirds of its 222 members. The temporary suspension of some MPs from attending its proceedings does not lower the number of votes required for amending the Constitution (i.e. 148) as the suspended MPs are still members of the Dewan Rakyat. If they were no longer MPs, then there would have to be by-elections for their constituencies and that is clearly not going to happen - which proves that even though they are suspended, they are still MPs.
In other words, as the total number of members of the Dewan Rakyat remains the same even if some of the MPs may be temporarily prohibited from attending its proceedings, the number of votes required to amend the Constitution must also remain the same – 148 out of 222.
Thus, although BN may have a 2/3rd control of the Dewan Rakyat without the suspended MPs, they are still not able to amend the constitution, which requires a minimum of 148 votes i.e. 2/3rds of the total number of MPs (including those which have been suspended). As BN only has 137 seats, even with the additional votes from the 6 BN friendly independents (making a total of 143), they still will not have the required minimum 148 votes to amend the Constitution.
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