FOLLOWING reports that Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun intends to return to his law practise after stepping down on Dec 19, a new debate has erupted on social media.
Twitter users appear to agree that the outgoing Speaker did not do justice to the institution and was mocked in his role.
Azhar, also known as Art Harun, is leaving the post on Dec 19 when the lower house sits for two days.
Amirul Ruslan @amirulruslan wrote that Art Harun has been an ‘unmitigated failure as Speaker.’
“This isn’t caused by limitations of the role; in his term he enabled unconstitutional overreach by Muhyiddin, and he had the gall to call him an “overlooked reformist”. He showed bias in selectively throwing out MPs.”
Followers of the Twitter user mostly supported the strong statement, with one user Thank you Healthcare Workers!! @JasonChing20 saying:
“We had so much hopes for Art Harun, but he crushed our hopes so fast and so hard when he enabled near-criminalistics activities in full view of the whole country.”
Some were very unkind to the Speaker, saying:
SAEDAH @saedah789·
“Speaker Rosak still can practice meh.”
Another user in the same stream says Azhar had the chance to be great, but he ended up being called a lapdog.
Azhar recently rejected a motion filed by then-opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to discuss the country’s cost of living crisis and the weakening ringgit.
He stated that the matter was not urgent because such issues would be thoroughly discussed during this sitting.
This sparked calls from all quarters (except from the government) for Azhar’s removal as speaker. But he survived the backlash.
In December, several Pakatan Harapan MPs decried Azhar Harun’s refusal to allow debate on the massive flooding in five states.
Azhar stated that the matter was not listed for discussion in the day’s order paper and thus could not be debated. — Dec 11, 2022
