COMMENT The opposition yesterday blew another opportunity to shoot tough questions at Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Najib was in the House - the third time this session - for the Minister's Question Time to answer a question about national debt from a BN lawmaker.

The opposition had the opportunity to ask a brief, final question.

They could have, for example, asked about concerns raised by former second finance minister Husni Hanadzlah yesterday, or how bad the economy really was that the government had to cut spending for public varsities.

Instead, Tan Seng Giaw (DAP-Kepong, photo) got up, and asked in what form were the government's RM2.7 billion offshore loans, to which Najib replied that it was mostly in the form of sukuk issuance, and subsequently left the House.

This missed opportunity followed another such instance last Monday, when Tan had asked an open-ended question about the state of the economy.

Tan's follow-up question was forgettable, but it left room for the opposition to ask Najib point-blank about the investigation into 1MDB by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), and about Malaysian Official 1, and how these issues would affect the national economy.

This was before Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia's ruling quashing oral questions related to the DOJ as sub judice.

Instead, Liew Chin Tong (DAP-Kluang) asked whether the government would reduce the goods and services tax to three percent, a question that could have been asked during the budget debate.

When met in the Parliament lobby, Tony Pua (DAP-Petaling Jaya Utara) said the opposition should be asking Najib tougher questions.

However, he said they had not planned ahead on who would ask what, and thus the questions depended on "the intelligence of the MPs".

'Quality of answers need improvement'

Charles Santiago (DAP-Klang) concurred, but said the quality of answers given also needed improvement, noting how ministerial replies sometimes missed the point.

Meanwhile, Tian Chua (PKR-Batu) said the current Minister's Question Time format makes it a bit difficult to come up with good queries, as there are only 30 seconds for supplementary questions.

"If we could have 15 minutes dedicated for back and forth questions it would be better," Tian Chua said.

Najib has been accused of misappropriating public funds through 1MDB.

The US Department of Justice claimed that US$731 million of stolen 1MDB funds had ended up in the accounts of the unnamed MO1.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdul Rahman Dahlan has said that MO1 is Najib himself.

However, Najib has denied these allegations, brushing them off as a conspiracy to topple him.

He has also been cleared of any misconduct in the 1MDB scandal by attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali.

ZIKRI KAMARULZAMAN is a member of the Malaysiakini team.