COMMENT Parliamentary speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia has once again vowed that he would quit if the parliamentary rules were ignored.

This comes amidst talk about a public debate between 1MDB president Arul Kanda and DAP’s Tony Pua, who is also a member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Pandikar had said that Pua should quit the PAC if he wanted to go on the debate with Arul. This was under the pretext that a member of the PAC cannot reveal anything in public before the report is presented to the Dewan Rakyat.

Nothing new, not the first time either

The Malaysian public who have been following the political development in the country could only shake their heads in disbelief at the words uttered by the speaker of the august House himself, and say, “No, not again!”

What the public is more interested is that the debate between Arul-Tony is on, and no one cares if Pandikar quits or keeps his job! After all, Pandikar is not indispensable, neither has his record as a parliamentary speaker since 2008 been outstanding.

What people are interested to know is what happened to the money borrowed by 1MDB and where has the money gone to?

Was the money funneled into Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s personal accounts part of the missing billions? Why is it that investigation into the 1MDB and its subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd appears to be derailed every time there appeared to be something forthcoming?

Pandikar Amin had earlier hinted that he would quit over a makeshift toilet, and the hurdles that he was facing in implementing reforms in the parliament.

Of course, Pandikar never quit. Since then, despite opportunities to be an impartial speaker to introduce reforms, Pandikar has ignored the voice of conscience to expedite the vote of no-confidence against Prime Minister Najib in Parliament, despite this subject being of public interest.

It is interesting to watch the antics of the Dewan Rakyat’s eighth parliamentary speaker who assumed office in 2008 and how he will then wriggle himself out when he comes to the bridge.

Would he quit or would he give other excuses that his time has not come yet? Pandikar had also earlier quit as Kota Marudu Umno division chief, and denied his resignation was linked to possible party defection amongst Umno MPs in East Malaysia in 2008.

We will never be able to know the truth, but ‘say Quit’ appears to be Pandikar’s special magical words to push his own agenda, or at least this is what it appears to be.

There can’t be nothing concrete

My question is why is it not possible for the PAC to present a preliminary report to the Dewan Rakyat on its past findings?

After months of investigations, there cannot be nothing concrete that cannot be presented in Parliament yet.

In my opinion, this should be the honourable speaker’s main priority - to get the PAC to present its preliminary findings in Parliament first and tell us why they are unable to provide more details.

Or rather, is it because 1MDB officials were uncooperative? We know, for example, that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) investigation into SRC International Sdn Bhd has met with uncooperative witnesses, where two of its senior officials have gone missing.

As Dewan Rakyat speaker, Pandikar should know what the rakyat and even the Conference of Malay Rulers are saying into his ears, so that he will do what is right so that the truth can be told.

The rakyat will no longer buy his ‘quit’ cries; therefore, he can keep it back into his bag of tricks so that he can use it some other day.

When I read about Pandikar’s vow to quit I could not help but think of the boy who cried ‘Wolf!’ three times. After that, he was on his own to protect his sheep.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.