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Pakatan Rakyat is maintaining that the Perak state
assembly did not convene today and Barisan Nasional's actions in the
state assembly hall were "illegal and unconstitutional".
This was despite Pakatan participating in the assembly ‘proceedings'
which saw the Perak Regent Raja Nazrin Shah reading the
royal address before the sitting was adjourned.
 Speaking
to reporters after BN-appointed speaker R Ganesan adjourned the
sitting, Nizar slammed the police and BN 'samseng' (thugs) for
interfering with the proceedings.
He also lashed out at the BN and its cohorts for forcefully removing
speaker V Sivakumar and physically hurting a number of Pakatan state
representatives.
"Their actions were evil and violated the sanctity of the house," he
said, while being flanked by his assemblypersons and speaker
Sivakumar.
Stressing his point further, Nizar said that BN had also switched
off Sivakumar's microphone.
"Even the speaker's rights have been robbed (by BN)," he said.
Hints from the Perak Regent?
Nizar also explained what had transpired when Raja Nazrin called
upon him and ousted senior exco member Ngeh Khoo Ham for a quick
discussion at the Regent's seat at the assembly.
After the short discussion, Nizar had ordered all Pakatan state
representatives to take their seats, as they were standing in
protest of Sivakumar's forcible removal from the house.
 "I
was ordered by tuanku. Tuanku wanted the cooperation of Pakatan
Rakyat.
"So we give him an opportunity to present his speech. Nothing more
than that... the dewan (assembly) never convened," he said.
Nizar said that acceding to the Regent's request did not mean that
Pakatan recognised that the assembly sitting took place.
Asked if
Raja Nazrin's royal address gave the assembly
sitting legitimacy, Nizar said that it was an "opening speech" and
not an "officiating speech", and refused to elaborate.
Nizar also responded to allegations by BN Menteri Besar Zambry Abd
Kadir that Pakatan started using force by trying to chase Ganesan
out of the house.
He said that Ganesan was illegally appointed as a speaker and it was
thus incumbent upon the Pakatan state representatives to maintain
the sanctity of the House by removing him.
Civil servants revolt
Meanwhile, Sivakumar lamented that the state legal advisor and the
sergeant-at-arms refused to follow his orders and frustrating his
attempts to convene a proper sitting.
 "My
microphone was disabled. Isn't that insulting the House and the
speaker? What then is their purpose?" he asked.
He added that the sergeant-at-arms was however very willing to
enforce Ganesan's order to remove the ousted speaker and Pakatan
state representatives from the House.
He maintained that he had rejected all motions tabled by BN
yesterday and every motion 'passed' by BN today was illegal.
BN today passed four motions - the eviction of Sivakumar as speaker,
appointment of Ganesan as the new speaker, that the March 'tree
assembly' was illegal and the appointments to three state assembly
committees.
On his removal from the House, Sivakumar said that police had
detained him in a room for about one and a half hour before the
assembly was adjourned sine die (indefinitely).
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