Anwar and 3 others banned for six months
The Dewan Rakyat approved a motion today suspending Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim (PKR-Permatang Pauh) for six months over his statement linking the 1Malaysia concept with the "One Israel" campaign.
Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim and three other Pakatan Rakyat MPs were suspended from Parliament for six months today in votes that triggered pandemonium and an opposition walkout.
Anwar was earlier found guilty of misleading members in a row over a national unity slogan.
He had criticised the government's '1Malaysia' slogan, which he said had been copied from the 'One Israel' political alliance of former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak in 1999.
The government had yesterday cited three senior opposition MPs for contempt for criticising the parliamentary disciplinary probe against Anwar, demanding that they, too, be hit with six-month suspensions.
The motion against Anwar was passed without any debate after the opposition noisily protested against the move.
The Pakatan Rakyat MPs eventually staged a walkout.
Another motion to suspend three other MPs - R Sivarasa (PKR-Subang), Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak) and Karpal Singh (DAP-Bukit Gelugor) - was later moved in the House in the absence of the opposition MPs. It was debated and passed.
All four are likely to be forced to sit it out the next parliamentary session, which is expected to resume in March next year.
Chaotic scenes
"It's so clear, it's blatantly biased," Anwar said after the suspension votes against the four were carried in parliament, where the ruling coalition has a clear majority. "It's a mockery of the entire proceedings."
The votes were held after chaotic scenes in the House where debate was drowned out by a half-hour shouting match, and opposition lawmakers unfurled placards reading "Save the Parliament".
Anwar led the opposition walkout, chanting "Shame on you".
Anwar was once a deputy prime minister in the ruling coalition but was sacked and jailed a decade ago on separate sex and corruption charges widely seen as politically motivated.
He spent six years in jail before the original sex conviction was overturned.
Anwar returned to Parliament in August 2008 in a by-election for the Permatang Pauh seat vacated by his wife, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail
He was then at the helm of a reinvigorated opposition, Pakatan Rakyat, that had made huge strides in March 2008 general election.
Anwar to take issue to the street
New polls are expected to be held early next year, but although the suspension will bar Anwar from attending parliamentary debates, his party says it will not sideline him or affect its election preparations.
Investors will be keeping a wary eye on the political tension. Several opposition members of parliament raised the possibility of protests.
"The people will not accept this, and we will go to them and explain," said Karpal, who was suspended from Parliament.
Malaysia's stock market has lagged its neighbours such as Jakarta, Bangkok and Manila this year, partly because of political uncertainty, although some money has flowed into government bonds and the ringgit currency.
"This will inflame the political climate given that Anwar and his party will take this issue to the street," said James Chin, a political science professor at Monash University in Kuala Lumpur.
- Agencies
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