DAP’S Padungan assemblyman, Wong King Wei, came within a whisker of being thrown out of the Sarawak Legislative Assembly today for disorderly conduct after he was involved in a heated exchange over the recent court decision to overturn the disqualification of Pujut rep Dr Ting Tiong Choon.

In a 2-to-1 decision, the Court of Appeal ruled that the state assembly had acted beyond its powers in stripping Dr Ting of his seat due to him holding an Australian citizenship, which he renounced in 2016 shortly before the state elections.

Today, reps voted on a ministerial motion seeking the assembly’s approval to apply for leave to appeal against Dr Ting’s reinstatement.

Wong was read the “riot act” twice as DAP assemblymen and Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) backbenchers sparred verbally, with Wong, at one point, throwing the Standing Orders on his table in anger.

The motion was passed – as expected – with all 68 GPS assemblymen present voting in favour. Seven Pakatan Harapan reps voted against it.

The motion was moved by the state Tourism, Arts, Culture and Youth Minister Abdul Karim Rahman, who said it was not intended to be a personal vendetta against Dr Ting, nor was it to politically persecute him.

The Asajaya assemblyman said seeking leave to appeal at the apex court is about the powers and obligation of members of the assembly “to protect the sanctity of the House”.

“Although the House is aware that a person who is not qualified to be elected as a member is, through a chain of events, actually sitting in the House, there is nothing that the House can do about it.

“To not do everything that the law provides for in this particular instance means that members of this House are accepting that they are powerless to prevent a person who is disqualified from remaining, to sit as a member of this House.”

On May 12, 2016, state International Trade and E-commerce Minister Wong Soon Koh had filed a ministerial motion to disqualify Dr Ting on the grounds that he had contravened Article 17(1)(g) of the state constitution.

Article 17(1)(g) states that “a person is disqualified from being elected as an elected member of the Dewan Undangan Negeri (state assembly) if he has voluntarily acquired citizenship of, or exercised the rights of citizenship in, any country outside the federation, or has made a declaration of allegiance to any country outside the federation”.

Dr Ting took up the Australian citizenship in 2010 when he was living there. He renounced the citizenship on April 4, 2016, so that he could return and contest in the state elections.

He secured 8,899 votes to see off his nearest rival, Hii King Chiong of Barisan Nasional (7,140) in a four-cornered fight.

Hii then took Dr Ting to the Election Court, seeking a declaration that the result was null and void as the latter should be disqualified.

The court threw out the case on technical grounds as Hii had failed to meet the mandatory legal requirements on submitting his petition and on the manner in which the security deposit should be paid.

Hii had paid the RM10,000 deposit by cheque when it should be by cash, and filed only one copy of the petition to the court, when he should have filed three.

Wong, unhappy with the dismissal, then tabled the ministerial motion to disqualify Dr Ting during the assembly sitting in May last year.

The 51 year-old medical doctor, who was stripped of his seat by the assembly in a vote of 70 (BN) to 10, brought his dismissal to the high court.

Kuching High Court judge Douglas Cristo Primus Sikayun, in his ruling, said the state assembly was not a competent body to hear the question of Dr Ting’s Australian citizenship, and found that the speaker had not properly applied the principle of natural justice to accord Dr Ting a fair hearing. – July 18, 2018.