4 theSun | MONDAY MARCH 2 2009

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Emergency sitting to
go ahead: Sivakumar
» From Front Page
said he and legal experts
had studied the Perak con-
stitution and the assembly’s
standing orders in detail and
determined that it is within
his power to call for the emer-
gency sitting.
He said Abdullah did not
have power to interpret the
Standing Orders and his job
was to follow the orders of
the speaker.
He added that the Sultan’s
consent was not needed in
this case.
He also said the emer-
gency sitting will go ahead as
planned.
Deputy Prime Minister
Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak
said on Saturday that Sivaku-
mar could not call the sitting
as the court had yet to decide
on the status of the (state)
government.
Earlier yesterday, Chan
and another of Sivakumar’s
lawyers Augustine Anthony
told a press conference in the
latter’s office that the assem-
bly was adjourned sine die
last November and as such
the Speaker had the power to
convene a new sitting.
“However, if the Sultan
of Perak had prorogued
(suspended) or dissolved the
12th State Assembly, then
the Speaker had to get the
consent of His Royal Highness
to convene the 13th State As-
sembly,” Chan said.
He said as such, the
Speaker had the authority un-
der Section 90 of the Standing
Orders to call for the sitting.
On Friday, Sivakumar called
for the sitting, invoking Stand-
ing Orders 8 and 11, to vote
on two motions, for which he
had received two notices on
Tuesday.
The motions were by
Titi Serong assemblyman
Dr Khalid Idham Lim Abdul-
lah and Tej assemblyman
Chang Lih Kang regarding
the constitutional crisis
which erupted when three
assembly members quit their
parties to become BN-friendly
independents, leading to the
fall of the 11-month-old Paka-
tan Rakyat government.
Perak DAP chief Datuk
Ngeh Koo Ham said the mo-
tions sought to dissolve the
State Assembly and reaffirm
support for Datuk Seri Mo-
hammad Nizar Jamaluddin as
mentri besar.
Sivakumar has also barred
BN’s Mentri Besar Datuk
Zambry Abdul Kadir and his
six executive councillors from
attending tomorrow’s sitting.
Also barred are the three
former Pakatan Rakyat
assemblymen of Behrang
(Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi),
Changkat Jering (Mohd Os-
man Mohd Jailu) and Jelapang
(Hee Yit Foong), who are now
independents.
District officers dropped
from local councils
by Opalyn Mok
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
GEORGE TOWN: In a depar-
ture from convention, the state
government has dropped the five
district officers from the two local
councils.
Freespace: Traditionally, the district offic-
Hopes ers are ex-officio members of the
sink in Penang Island Municipal Council
(MPPP) and the Seberang Prai
limbo land Municipal Council (MPSP).
pg 11 The five district officers
dropped are northeast district’s
Azizi Zakaria and southwest
district’s Hasan Saad from the
MPPP and Seberang Prai Utara’s
Mokhtar Mohd Jaip, Seberang Prai
Tengah’s Ruslan Yahaya and Se-
berang Prai Selatan’s Jusni Ismail
from the MPSP.
When contacted, local govern-
ment committee chairman Chow
Kon Yeow said there is no need
for the district officers to be full-
fledged councillors because as dis-
trict officers, some council matters
will also be referred to them.
“They don’t even attend the full
council meeting and whether they
are full-fledged councillors or not,
they are also involved in certain
council matters.”
He said having the district offic-
ers as councillors was a duplica-
tion of duties since district officers
already have an avenue to handle
certain council matters such as
those involving land matters.
“We do not need them as coun-
cillors as they do not serve in the
sense of political representatives
in the areas,” he said, adding it
was not in the Local Government
Act that they must be councillors.
The five district officers were
among 12 local councillors who
have been dropped and are being
replaced with new faces for the
duration of March 1 to Dec 31.
The state executive council
had on Friday approved the ap-
pointment of 13 new councillors
and re-appointment of 35 local
councillors.
Besides Azizi and Hasan, the
five other MPPP councillors who
were dropped are Tham Weng
Fatt (DAP), Chua Kheng Ee (PKR),
Abdul Halim Salleh (PAS), Francis
Loh Kok Wah (non-governmental
organisation), Rizal Faris Mo-
hideen Abdul Kader (NGO).
They are being replaced by Ong
Ah Teong (DAP), Mohd Razali Haji
Abdullah (PKR), Lim Boo Chang
(PKR), Abdul Aziz
Ismail (PAS), Asnah Hashim (PAS),
Yasir Hafiz Munawar Ali (NGO)
and Prof Mohd Zahry Shaikh Ab-
dul Rahim (NGO). The remaining
17 councillors were retained.
This means that in the MPPP,
there will now be 10 councillors
from DAP , eight from PKR, two
from PAS and four from NGOs as
compared to last year when there
were 10 from DAP, seven from
PKR, one from PAS, four from
NGOs and two district officers.
For MPSP, the councillors who
were dropped, besides Mokhtar,
Ruslan and Jusni, are Norhayati
Jaafar (PKR) and Amizudin Ah-
mad (PKR).
The six new faces, includ-
ing one to fill a vacancy, are M.
Chandrasekaran (DAP), Ahmad
Farid Md Arshad (PKR), Amir Md
Ghazali (PKR), Muhamad Hashim
(PKR), Abdul Rahman Ramjan
(PAS) and Idersi Ibrahim (NGO).
This means that in the MPSP,
there will now be 10 councillors
from DAP, nine from PKR, two
from PAS and three from NGOs
compared to nine from DAP, eight
from PKR, one from PAS and three
from NGOs previously.
The new councillors will take
their oath this week.

Help for retrenched

workers in Selangor
by Hemananthani Sivanandam
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
SHAH ALAM: The Selangor govern-
ment is offering help for workers who
were retrenched due to the economic
downturn.
The Workers’ Retrenchment Action
Committee in Selangor, in a press state-
ment, said popular job portal JobStreet.
com can now be accessed at www.
selangor.gov.my
The website provides retrenched
workers an opportunity to send in their
resumes and apply for the jobs listed
in the website. It also helps jobseekers
match with jobs currently available in
Selangor.
The website is currently available
only in English but the Bahasa Malaysia
version will be available on March 7.
The committee also said that it has
sent survey forms to all companies in
Selangor regarding the retrenchment
process used by the companies.
To date, five companies have re-
sponded. The survey is also aimed at
finding out about jobs available in these
companies, for record purposes.
Meanwhile, retrenched workers
who would like to take up new skills
can enrol at the WIT (We Insist In
Training) College in Klang.
WIT provides engineering studies,
vocational and technical skills train-
ing. It also conducts many part-time
courses under its continuing education
programme to enhance the skills and
knowledge of workers.
Since its establishment, it has
trained more than 30,000 youths and
employees.

Four women soldiers make

army history
KUALA LUMPUR: Four
women soldiers created his-
tory in conjunction with the
Royal Malaysian Army’s 76th
anniversary yesterday when
two of them became the first
women to receive their wings
while two others were given
the honour to be parade com-
manders.
Kapt Diana Hamdan, 27,
from the First Royal Artillery
Regiment, and Kapt Siti Nur-
farhana Mohd Aminuddin, 26,
from the Royal Military Police
Corps, received their ‘Military
Wing Standard’ while Kapt
Ungku Fatimah Zaharah Ungku
Abu Bakar, 24, from the Royal
Signals Regiment was given the
honour to be the RMA’s colour
bearer and Kapt Nornie Fathma
Ab Rahman, 26, as first female
parade adjutant.
Army chief Jen Tan Sri Ismail
Jamaluddin said there was no
gender discrimination in the
army.
“It is up to the individuals to
determine their direction and if
women are willing to shoulder
the responsibility, the tasks and
are tough, they can walk as
tall as their male colleagues,”
he said after the anniversary
celebration at the Sungai Besi
army camp.
Ismail said the army had
no problems having women
soldiers and that more women
were joining the army as a
profession.
Meanwhile, Diana, who is
from Merlimau, Malacca, said it
was not easy for her to compete
with her male colleagues but
she persevered and managed
to complete the one-and-half-
year course before she finally
got her wings.
She joined the army four
years ago as an artillery officer
and her next goal is to be an
aircraft captain.
For Ungku Fatimah Zaharah,
from Subang Jaya and who
holds a bachelor of science
degree in human resource
development from Universiti
Putera Malaysia, and Sarawa-
kian Nornie Fathma, a graduate
from Universiti Teknologi Mara,
they regarded their achieve-
ment as a success for women
in a male-dominated field.
– Bernama