Sivakumar determined to go ahead with sitting
By Debra Chong, The Malaysian Insider
Ousted Perak speaker, V. Sivakumar who fears interference from the state secretary, says he is committed to holding an assembly sitting inside the state secretariat building in Ipoh tomorrow.
“I'll go ahead with it,” he told The Malaysian Insider over the phone this evening.
Sivakumar had failed in his bid to get the Ipoh High Court to issue a restraining order against Datuk Abdul Rahman Hashim earlier this afternoon.
Sivakumar said past attempts by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) state lawmakers to hold meetings inside the state secretariat building had been effectively blocked by Abdul Rahman — from the last inquiry by its rights and privileges committee, which he also helms, to the March 3 sitting which ended with the infamous gathering by PR assemblymen under a nearby rain tree.
He charges the state secretary, who heads the civil service in Perak, to be biased towards the rival Barisan Nasional (BN) faction.
“During the March 3 sitting, the Ipoh OCPD said that the State Secretary authorised him to prevent the Assembly from sitting,” Sivakumar said in his press statement.
“We didn't want them to do the same thing,” he told The Malaysian Insider.