Veteran opposition MP Karpal Singh accused Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia of habouring a “personal agenda” against opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

opposition walkout parliament 081210 02 Karpal (DAP-Bukit Gelugor) ( in wheelchair in pic ) said that the urgent motion rejected this morning was a “conflict of interest” as both Pandikar and deputy speaker Ronald Kiandee are members of the rights and privileges committee.

“The rights and privileges committee is riding rough shod over the rights of Anwar (and) Pandikar is the chairman of the committee. He should not have rejected the motion. It should have been (deputy Dewan Rakyat speaker) Wan Junaidi  (Wan Jaafar who should review the motion),” he said.

Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak) demanded this morning why his emergency motion questioning the intention of Parliament’s rights and privileges committee’s decision to censure Anwar without calling for his defence was rejected.

Karpal, who is also a member of the committee, went on to say that “there was a clear case of an agenda by the speaker himself.”

“The manner that he chaired the meeting the other day (Dec 3), the manner he went about in the morning in the House, (but) what was more important was for the speaker to have heard out Gombak (Azmin), which he did not,” he said.

‘Apco letter considered sufficient’

Last week, the rights and privileges committee had met and the members were given copies of a letter from Apco Worldwide dated Aug 19.

A motion by Razali Ibrahim (BN-Muar) to proceed with the hearing without witnesses, including Anwar’s defence, was then passed as the Apco letter was considered sufficient.

opposition walkout parliament 081210 pc 02 The committee is probing into Anwar’s jibe linking ‘One Israel’ to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s ‘1 Malaysia’ campaigns.

Anwar had accused the international public relation consultancy APCO Worldwide of mooting the concept.

The motion was supported by Fong Chan Onn (BN-Alor Gajah), Nancy Shukri (BN-Batang Sadong) and Kiandee.

Karpal and fellow committee member R Sivarasa (PKR-Subang), walked out of the meeting in protest.

Today, Azmin argued that the decision to reject the motion was “outrageous and goes against the principles of justice”.

“It goes against what the speaker himself said. Pandikar on April 22 had said that a person referred to the committee will be given the right to give his statement and call for witnesses,” he said.

Memorandum signed by 61 Aussie MPs

Meanwhile, an Independent senator for South Australia, Nick anwar with aussie senator pc 081210 nick xenophon Xenophon, commenting on the rights and privileges committee’s decision, said it was “extraordinary” that Anwar was not given an opportunity to defend himself.

“Maybe you are familiar with the expression of kangaroo court in Australia, this is much worse than a kangaroo court,” he told reporters at Parliament.

Xenophon ( right ) also highlighted the memorandum signed by 61 Australian MPs who had expressed concern over Anwar’s latest sodomy trial.

“Australia and Malaysia are good and old friends, there’s a very strong link between the two nations... When you are good and old friends, you need to tell each other the truth,” he said.