KUCHING: The seating position of members in the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) will be rearranged in view of current political developments, said DUN Speaker Datuk Amar Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar.
He said following the disqualification of Pujut assemblyman Dr Ting Tiong Choon, the seat for Pujut stood vacant and Democratic Action Party (DAP) was reduced to six seats in the DUN.
“Also, Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) will shift from the no-man’s land of being neither with Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) nor with DAP and is juxtaposed with the opposition. Its president (Datuk Seri Wong Soon Koh) is no longer a State Cabinet minister,” he said in a press conference at the DUN complex here yesterday.
Asfia also pointed out that three Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) members who, on a frolic of their own, jettisoned PKR, had left the party without any representative in the state legislature.
“Two of the former PKR members are in close proximity with PSB, thereby bolstering the members of PSB from four to six,” he said.
He added that one of three PKR members had been elevated to be a deputy federal minister joining the government of Perikatan Nasional (PN) at the federal level without joining the GPS at state level.
“This confluence of circumstances creates a new configuration in the next meeting of the DUN,” he said.
Asfia added once it was established that PSB had six members, this catapulted the party to rank pari-passu with DAP, hence the seat of leader of the opposition in the House became an open question.
“Fortunately, the chambers of the Dewan is spacious enough to allow and accommodate political distancing between the government and the opposition and, at the same time, maintain social distancing amongst its honourable members,” Asfia said.
