PARLIAMENT Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia Amin today ordered Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Gelang Patah) to retract and apologise for his statement which allegedly insulted the speaker.

Failing this, he said Lim risked being suspended by the House.

"The statement by Gelang Patah has insulted the status of the speaker to the first degree," said Pandikar during today's sitting.

He was referring to Lim's statement yesterday which accused the speaker of abusing his power by freezing the investigation of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for three months in an attempt to sabotage its probe into 1MDB.

Lim said this during the debate on the appointment of the parliamentary select committee members.

"Convey the message to him. If he refuses to apologise and retract his statement, then a motion will be brought against him," Pandikar told the House.

"This has happened to Gombak (parliamentarian Azmin Ali), Puchong (parliamentarian Gobind Singh Deo) [photo] and Permatang Pauh (ex-MP Anwar Ibrahim).

"My ruling has nothing to do with the political situation in the country," he added.

"I reiterate, urge him to apologise at the next opportunity for him to come into the House," he said.

Pandikar also admitted that he had just smiled at Lim when the latter uttered the statement to his face yesterday.

Lost his cool

He later took offence at Lim's criticism, particularly the part where Lim accused him of deliberately abusing his power to sabotage the probe.

"He said 'you don't have the power, you abuse your power, you deliberately stopped the PAC from sittting, you sabotaged the investigation'," said Pandikar.

"Can there be any words more insulting than this?"

"When I was in school, he already became an MP. I don't know if he is a father of the MPs if compared with Gua Musang (parliamentarian Tengku Razaleigh Tengku Hamzah)," said Pandikar.

He also said failing to act on Lim (photo) would give the impression that the speaker only dared to take action against new parliamentarians, while veterans were let off the hook.

The speaker lost his cool yesterday, too, when he kicked out both Lim Lip Eng (DAP-Segambut) and Gobind Singh Deo (DAP-Puchong) for two days when they questioned his decision to reject an urgent motion on the highways toll hike.

In a rare display of temper, Pandikar had interjected the debate on the Allied Health Profession Bill 2015 today to explain his decision on Lim and Gobind after which he unleashed his anger at Lim.

Since being appointed to office in 2008, Pandikar said he had allowed lawmakers to hold press conferences to criticise him after their motions were turned down.

This, he said, was not allowed during his predecessor Mohamed Zahir Ismail's time.