Bayan Baru MP Zahrain Hashim has attacked Malaysiakini in Parliament over its report on a recent seminar in Washington last month, which he attended alongside top government officials.

According to Zahrain, Malaysiakini provided information about the seminar to fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, who later gave a negative spin of the event.

csis washing dc seminar zahrain hashim 180310 While debating the motion of thanks on the King's speech, he alleged that Malaysiakini was in cahoots with Raja Petra to attack Barisan Nasional and the government at the behest of Pakatan Rakyat.

The former PKR parliamentarian was referring to a report on the seminar organised by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) titled 'Governance and Rule of Law in Malaysia'.

Among speakers at the seminar were de facto law minister Nazri Abdul Aziz, attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission's advisory panel chairperson Abdul Hamid Mohamad.

However, Nazri was the sole speaker at the event.

Probe Malaysiakini, Raja Petra

Abdul Gani and Abdul Hamid were not at the seminar but Zahrain and another parliamentarian Wee Choo Keong (PKR-Wangsa Maju) were spotted among Nazri's entourage.

NONE The revelation of Zahrain and Wee's cozy ties with Nazri took place just two weeks after the controversial MP quit PKR, amidst rumours that Umno was attempting to buy over opposition MPs to give BN a two-third majority in the Dewan Rakyat. 

Zahrain also slammed a Malaysiakini contributor, calling him a "mercenary" writer.

Following this, he urged the authorities, including the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), to investigate Malaysiakini , Raja Petra and others whom he dubbed "ghost writers" and "henchmen" of Pakatan.

Zahrain gets facts wrong

At a press conference held later, Zahrain claimed that the article in Malaysiakini was published two days after Raja Petra's. After reading both, he concluded that both parties were in collusion.

When told that both articles appeared on the same day, Zahrain appeared unperturbed that he had made a factual error and responded with: "I don't know."

On the Malaysiakini contributor Terence Netto, whom he called a mercenary, Zahrain said he felt slighted over several articles penned by him.

"He wrote in his articles calling me an agent of Umno and an agent of BN, this is not right." 

Asked if he had anything to say to Anwar, he replied: "I wish I can personally repeat to him the Abraham Lincoln quote that he often use - you can lie to some people some time, but you cannot lie to everyone all the time."

Asked about the ruckus between him and his former compatriots yesterday, he called them "chimpanzees in circus, but they are still friends".

"This is what happens when doubts overcome faith," he added.