Malaysian Parliament has Non-Westminster Procedure in selecting Speaker

Star Online:

Candidate for Parliament Speaker identified

KUALA LUMPUR: The candidate to be appointed as the new Dewan Rakyat Speaker has been identified, says Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) parliamentary chief whip Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof (pic).

Without giving a name, Fadillah said the candidate was not a Member of Parliament.

Asked whether the candidate is a Sarawakian, he just smiled.

“I’m not naming anyone but what’s for sure is that the candidate is well qualified and a Malaysian,” he told reporters after presenting Completion Contractor Certificates to 39 recipients here yesterday.

Last Sunday, Tan Sri Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof confirmed that he had received a termination motion as Dewan Rakyat Speaker. He said there was also a motion to terminate his deputy Nga Kor Ming.

WTF - it seems there was an amendment that allowed non-MP to become House Speakers. I can guess when and under whom did this nonsense came in (no doubt during the time I was in Australia - wakakaka).

Under the proper Westminster parliamentary system (as practised by UK and Australia) the House Speaker must be elected from the pool of MPs (not House of Lords or Senate). How the eff can a non-elected person become the most powerful person in parliament?

The proper procedures towards electing the Lower House (Dewan Rakyat) Speaker require an election (following is based on the UK process):

• MPs are given a list of candidates to vote as the candidate of their choice,
• if a candidate receives more than 50% of the votes, the question is put to the House that he or she takes the chair as Speaker,
• if no candidate does so, the candidate with the fewest votes, and those with less than five% of the vote, are eliminated,
• in addition, any candidate may withdraw within 10 minutes of the announcement of the result of a ballot,
• MPs then vote again on the reduced slate of candidates and continue doing so until one candidate receives more than half the votes.

The uniqueness of the Westminster system is that elected speakers can still stand in general elections. They are generally unopposed by the major political parties, who will not field a candidate in the Speaker's constituency - this includes the original party they were a member of. During a general election, Speakers do not campaign on any political issues but simply stand as 'the Speaker seeking re-election'.

But the Speaker will still have to deal with their constituents' problems like a normal MP.

House Speaker has the 'deciding vote' in the event of a tie on voting for an issue.