DAP’s Padungan assemblyman Wong King Wei told reporters that Friday’s dismissal of Ting encroached into the territory of the judiciary.
“When it comes to interpreting the constitution, the legal system is very rigid on the matter,” said Wong, who is the state youth chief.
“The Federal Court is the only authoritative institution on the matter. Why? Because the constitution is the highest law of the land. They not only govern the liberties and rights of citizens but it also governs the legality of any act,” he said.
Regular acts could be interpreted by judges from the High Court, the Court of Appeal, the Sessions Court or the Magistrate’s Court, Wong said.
“They have the authority to interpret normal acts, but not when it comes to the Federal or State constitution.”
Wong said the core issue of the motion against Ting revolves around the interpretation of Article 17(1)(g) of the Sarawak constitution.
That law states that a person is disqualified from being elected as an elected member of the state legislative assembly if he has voluntarily acquired citizenship of or exercised rights of citizenship in or has made declaration of allegiance to any country outside the Malaysian Federation.
Another point of contention is the wording of Article 24 (1) of the Federal Constitution, where the process of stripping a person with dual citizenship of his Malaysian citizenship is not automatic.
That law states if the Federal Government is satisfied that any citizen has acquired by registration, naturalization or other voluntary and formal act (other than marriage) the citizenship of any country outside the Federation, the Federal Government may by order deprive that person of his citizenship.
Wong said Friday’s proceedings not only eroded the separation of the judiciary, executive and legislative, “but they are destroying the foundation that the whole legal system is based on, which we inherited in this long history of legal evolution from Great Britain”.
“The question is how BN state assemblymen see themselves as more authoritative than the Federal Court judges? How could BN members see themselves as more knowledgeable?
“And as being able to comprehend and understand the whole spirit of the legal system, which has been developed gradually over a period of a few centuries in Great Britain.
“They took interpreting the Constitution lightly. They looked at it as something that’s just normal, like drinking a cup of coffee, like any other normal business in the Dewan. No, it is not normal business at all.
“They even did not understand the basic principle of what is hearsay. As a legal practitioner, I was speechless. They are destroying the legal system,” Wong said.
State finance minister Wong Soon Koh proposed the motion to dismiss Ting late Friday morning at the Sarawak assembly. The motion was carried through after 70 BN assemblymen voted in the affirmative.
It was the first order of the day, on the first day of the current sitting.
Chief Minister Abang Johari Openg was not present for the vote.