Malacca’s first state assembly sitting for the year ended rather prematurely this morning, barely half an hour after it commenced at 9.30am, when a shouting match erupted between Sungai Udang assemblyperson Idris Haron (Umno), Speaker Omar Jaafar and several Pakatan Harapan representatives.
The incident started when the speaker wanted to start the day with a prayer recitation, but Idris stood up and told Omar that he was not fit to be sitting at the speaker’s seat as he does not command the majority support of the state assembly.
According to a government media journalist who witnessed the incident, Idris had accused Omar of rejecting a motion by new Chief Minister Sulaiman Md Ali (Lendu-Umno) to remove Omar as a speaker because Omar has direct interest in the decision.
For the record, only government-owned media were allowed to cover the sitting, while other media organisations were barred from entering the space provided for the media to watch the assembly.
Based on several video recordings of the incident provided by deputy speaker Dr Wong Fort Pin, Idris’ action then sparked shouting inside the hall at Seri Negeri Complex in Ayer Keroh, seeing several Harapan assemblypersons calling for the speaker to eject Idris.
