PARLIAMENT Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia today cleared Deputy Finance Minister Ahmad Maslan of any "bad intent" in submitting a wrong oral answer in Parliament on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), thus ruling that he need not be referred to the rights and privileges committee.

"I rule that there is no intent whatsoever by the deputy minister. I was presiding as speaker when it happened (Ahmad's statement was made).

"He was being asked questions constantly and there are chances he could miss out and rush answers," Pandikar ( right ) said in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Ahmad told the Dewan Rakyat on Nov 6 that no support letter exists by the government for 1MDB undertaking RM9.6 billion in bonds.

He corrected the statement in a press release two days later.

Rafizi Ramli (PKR-Pandan) raised the motion today and Ahmad defended his case, insisting that he had "missed out six words" in his answer, and as such, he was sorry for the omission.

Ahmad made two corrections to the statements he made in Parliament on Nov 6.

He said when he said there "is no letter whatsoever", it should mean "there are no other guarantee letters whatsoever".

The second, "the letter of support does not exist" was corrected to "the letter of support giving such guarantees does not exist".

Pakatan MPs accept apology

Ahmad said in his explanation, "I admit my mistake in leaving out the six extra words, which have caused this misunderstanding. I had no intention to mislead the House. Sorry and thank you."

Pakatan Rakyat MPs received the ruling warmly as they hailed the "unprecedented" move by Pandikar to allow a motion from the opposition bench to refer a member of the government to the committee to be read and debated in the House.

"We accept the apology by the deputy minister and it is important that this was corrected by the deputy minister. He had said sorry and this is still a victory for the rakyat," Rafizi said.

Pakatan MPs also expressed hope that such space will be given for similar motions in the future.

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