A commotion arose in the Dewan Rakyat today when Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Senator Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, alleged that Dr Hasan Mohd Ali (PAS-Parit Buntar) had won his state assembly seat illegally in 1999.

Tengku Adnan had said when replying to Hasan's supplementary question on illegal migrant workers, "The government allows for those [things] which are legitimate but you like those [things] which are illegal. As I recall, you as the state assemblyman for Sungai Burung won by 90 votes.

"I still remember at that time, I asked the returning officer for a recount but the returning officer refused to do a recount. From our feedback, we discovered that the returning officer was friendly with you. Thus, you won the elections illegally."

At this juncture, Hasan rose to protest the deputy minister's statement, saying, "I protest, truly protest. I hope you can repeat your statement outside the Dewan."

Other opposition MPs, particularly those from PAS, joined in the fray to demand that Tengku Adnan retracted his statement.

Retraction demand

Deputy Speaker Lim Si Cheng who was presiding over the session had a hard time maintaining order.

Lim tried several times to calm down Hasan and opposition legislators while seeking clarification from Tengku Adnan on his statement.

Tengku Adnan, who had made the allegation with a grin on his face, initially refused to back down.

"Mr Speaker, I did not say the Election Commission is at fault, I say their (PAS') election victory is illegitimate because of their actions. It has nothing to do with the commission," he said, ending with the Malay proverb about people being bound to feel the heat after partaking of chillies.

His reply fueled another round of uproar from the opposition, prompting Lim to urge Tengku Adnan to retract his statement.

Ramadan

Tengku Adnan then acquiesced because "it is the holy month of Ramadan".

However, he did not reply to Hasan's supplementary questions as the deputy speaker announced that the time for oral questions was up.

In his supplementary questions, Hasan had asked if the government's deportation of illegal migrant workers back to their countries would cause any shortfall in expenditure and project implementation in the affected industries.

He also wanted to know how many agencies have been approved by the government to recruit foreign workers.

Tengku Adnan had earlier revealed that, initial studies suggested that Malaysia's economy would not be badly affected by the deportation.