by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Saturday, 8th Sept 1990:
Ooi Ean Kwong should announce at the Privileges Committee meeting on Monday that he is resigning not only as Chairman of the Committee but also as Assembly Speaker
The meeting of the Penang Assembly Privileges Committee called by the Speaker, Datuk Ooi Ean Kwong, for Monday to discuss the status of Sdr. Karpal Singh and myself as Penang Assemblymen is irregular and unlawful.
When Karpal and I were suspended from the Penang State Assembly on June 11, it could only for that Assembly meeting and not indefinitely.
As the suspension was the result of an Assembly motion, the Privileges Committee has no power to review or to interpret the meaning of the suspension motion. The Privileges Committee is not a high court of appeal over the State Assembly, but a sub-committee of the Assembly to investigate into complaints of breach of privileges referred to it by the Assembly.
In this case, there is nothing for the Privileges Committee to investigate or to meet because the matter of the suspension of Sdr. Karpal and myself had been dealt with and disposed of by the Assembly itself on June 11, and the matter cannot be reviewed by any sub-committee.
Otherwise, we will have a situation somewhat like a judge passing a jail sentence, and leaving to the Attorney-General’s Chambers to interpret how long the jail sentence should last. This is ridiculous and could only happen with people who have no notion of parliamentary conventions or rules of natural justice.
Furthermore, it is most improper and irregular for Datuk Ooi Ean Kwong to call and chair a meeting of the Privileges Committee over the suspension of Sdr. Karpal and myself, when Datuk Ooi Ean Kwong was an interested and involved person in the Assembly altercation leading to the suspension.
The June 11 Assembly uproar leading to the abuse of his powers to get Karpal and me suspended would not have arisen if Ooi Ean Kwong had been able to handle the Assembly or proceedings with wisdom and fairness, and not turned the Penang State Assembly into a police cantonment. Ean Kwong showed in June that he could not handle the Assembly proceedings without the back-up support of the police!
The Privileges Committee has therefore no business to meet on Monday over the suspension of Sdr. Karpal and myself. We were suspended only for the duration of the June meeting of the State Assembly, and nothing can stop both of us from returning to take our rightful seats in the Assembly should it meet again.
Clearly, what Ooi Ean Kwong is afraid most is that if there is another Penang Assembly meeting, he would have to face Karpal and me which is what frightens him most, as he knows that he would be fully exposed as having violated Article 20(5) of the Penang Constitution of being illegally and unlawfully involved in business while being Speaker.
Sdr. Karpal Singh had produced all the proofs needed to establish this. Fir fear of meeting either Karpal or myself in the Assembly, Ooi Ean Kwong is calling an illegal meeting of the Privileges Committee to exclude us from any future Assembly meeting. This is a great shame!
The only honourable way out for Ooi Ean Kwong is to announce at the Privileges Committee meeting on Monday that he is resigning not only as Chairman of the Privileges Committee, but also as Speaker of the Penang Assembly, to preserve the good name of the Penang Constitution, the Penang Assembly and the office of Penang Speaker.