SARAWAK DAP has urged the chief minister to call for an emergency assembly sitting within two weeks, saying recent legal action by Mohamad Asfia Awang Nassar no longer deemed him “fit and proper” to continue to be the speaker. 

The opposition component charged that Asfia could no longer continue as speaker after apparently naming the assembly as his opponent in his appeal of the reinstatement of Dr Ting Tiong Choon as the Pujut assemblyman. 

“The DUN (state assembly) now is in limbo. You have the speaker making DUN the opponent in his appeal. It’s in a terrible situation. It should be resolved,” state DAP leader Chong Chieng Jen told reporters today after handing over a letter to the state assembly secretariat requesting the emergency assembly sitting.

A separate copy was also delivered to Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg.

“When the speaker takes legal action against the house itself, definitely the house is in crisis,” he added. 

Asfia had named the state legislative assembly as a respondent in his appeal, The Borneo Post reported today, citing Dr Ting’s lawyer, Wong King Wei. 

King Wei said the Election Commission and Sarawak Second Finance Minister Wong Soon Koh were also named as respondents in Asfia’s notice of appeal that the DAP received yesterday.

Wong had tabled a motion to dismiss Dr Ting on May 12, claiming that the latter had breached Article 17(1)(g) of the state constitution when he acquired Australian citizenship. 

The motion was put to a vote by Asfia. Seventy BN assemblymen voted in the affirmative. 

“Who shall make the decision for the DUN? Surely not the speaker now, although he is the head of DUN,” Chong said. Present were several DAP lawmakers. 

“At no other time has the assembly been in such an embarrassing position where the head made the DUN an opponent in a legal action,” he said. 

Chong said Asfia had misled the assembly with a “wrong interpretation” of the state constitution and by not acting in accordance with the rules of “natural justice.”

He added that the Sarawak assembly cannot appeal without a resolution passed authorising it to do so.

“It will be doubly embarrassing if the appeal were declared unauthorised and unlawful, making the Sarawak assembly a habitual law-breaker,” Chong said. 

Dr Ting has admitted that he acquired Australian citizenship, but renounced it prior to contesting the Pujut state seat last year. 

Last Saturday, Judge Douglas Christo Primus Sikayun ruled that the state assembly was not a “competent forum” to decide on Dr Ting’s membership based on Article 118 of the Federal Constitution and that the speaker had wrongly applied Article 17(1)(g) of the state constitution.

Dr Ting filed an originating summons in the High Court here to challenge his dismissal on June 7. 

Following the court’s decision, the EC cancelled the Pujut by-election previously announced for July 4. – June 21, 2017.