Speaker says will not interfere in motion against brother

Dewan Rakyat Speaker Azhar Harun today said he would refrain from making any decision related to a motion brought against his brother, Attorney-General Idrus Harun, and law minister Takiyuddin Hassan over Istana Negara’s recent statement that the decision to revoke the emergency ordinances was inaccurate and had confused members of the house.

In a statement, he said his office had received the motion submitted by Ipoh Barat MP M Kulasegaran, dated July 29.

“It is public knowledge that Idrus is my brother,” he said. “Therefore, I have decided to recuse myself from making any decisions about, or that are linked to or in any way related to the motion.”

He said any decision regarding the motion would be made by his deputies, Mohd Rashid Hasnon and Azalina Othman Said.

“I will not interfere in any way whatsoever with the duty of the deputy speakers in this matter,” he said.

The palace said in a statement on July 29 that Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah had not given his consent to the move to revoke the emergency ordinances announced in the Dewan Rakyat.

It also said what had been consented to and decreed to Takiyuddin as minister in charge of law and Idrus as attorney-general during a virtual audience on July 24 that the proposal to revoke all emergency ordinances be tabled and debated in Parliament for the purpose of annulment was not carried out.

“His Majesty stresses that the minister’s statement in Parliament on July 26 was inaccurate and had confused the MPs,” it said, adding that the request to revoke the ordinances effective July 21 was done “hastily and without debate in Parliament”.