The federal government has confirmed that the Dewan Rakyat speaker has been notified that it intends to table a motion to refer Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim to the Rights and Privileges Committee.

parliament gobind singh ban over nazri mistake 251108 01 "I have delivered the notice (to the speaker), just now," Minister in the Prime Minister's department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz ( left ), told reporters this morning.

He said if found guilty, the committee can either recommend that Anwar be given a warning or face suspension. 

Nazri said the government will table the motion on April 22, which is incidently the last day of the Dewan Rakyat sitting and three days before the Hulu Selangor by-election, in which Anwar's PKR will participate.

The government wants action against Anwar for claiming in the Dewan Rakyat that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's '1Malaysia' had its roots in the 'One Israel' initiative.

According to Anwar, the brains behind 'One Israel' was Apco Worldwide consultancy, which is hired by Najib's administration.

Apco has denied roles in both 1Malaysia and 'One Israel', stressing that its commitment to the Malaysian government is to provide "communication support for a broad range of reform initiatives undertaken by the Malaysian government".

This caused an uproar on the Barisan Nasional bench who demanded action be taken against Anwar for misleading the House, but not before giving him a chance to explain himself.

Motion to terminate Apco's services

NONE In response to this, Anwar on March 30 produced documents to the Dewan Rakyat which allegedly proved the Apco-Israel-Malaysia link but failed to impress Nazri.

In a related development, Batu MP Tian Chua submmited a notice to the speaker to state that he would table a motion urging the federal government to terminate Apco's services.

"I move that the Parliament urge the government to immediately rescind its agreement with Apco Worldwide Sdn Bhd and stop all cooperation with it, for it is a threat to national security and infringes upon our sovereignty," read the notice.

Chua reiterated Pakatan's earlier allegations that Apco is staffed by former Israeli intelligence and government officers and is thus a threat to Malaysia, which has no diplomatic ties with Israel.

He said the scope of Apco's work would expose the country to possible espionage.

The speaker will decide on both notices tomorrow.