PARLIAMENT | Intrigue over alleged payments from Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to the country's military spy chief deepened after Parliament rejected a question on the matter.

Alor Setar MP Gooi Hsiao Leung, who asked the rejected question, claimed there is a parliamentary cover-up on the matter, as well as on 1MDB.

"What we are witnessing in Parliament is a complete cover-up.

"All questions pertaining to 1MDB and the PM are disallowed - a blanket ban.

"The House is no longer a people's House, but a House used to cover-up and hide wrongdoings by the government," Gooi told Malaysiakini.

Gooi had wanted to ask Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein (photo) whether the allegation by Sarawak Report that Najib paid RM7 million to the director-general of the Defence Staff Intelligence Division in April 2013 was true or false.

If false, Gooi's question added, what action the minister would take to protect the integrity of the security forces from being tarnished.

However, his question was rejected under Standing Order 23(1)(c), which states that "a question shall not contain any argument, interference, opinion, imputation, epithet or misleading, ironical or offensive expression, nor shall a question be frivolous or be asked seeking information on trivial matters".

Hishammuddin had previously said he had nothing to hide over the matter and was willing to be investigated.

At the time of the alleged payment, the defence minister was Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Sarawak Report claimed that the payment was one in a series of transactions Najib made using money allegedly transferred to him from former 1MDB subsidiary SRC International Sdn Bhd.

Other related questions also rejected

Other questions on these series of payments had also been rejected by Parliament.

This included a question from opposition leader Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who asked the prime minister if the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission had initiated a probe into lawyer Shafee Abdullah.

Najib is alleged to have paid Shafee RM9.5 million with SRC-linked funds, at around the time the Shafee took the role of prosecutor in Anwar Ibrahim’s Sodomy II trial.

Najib has consistently denied abusing public funds, while attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali had last year cleared the prime minister of any wrongdoing regarding SRC International.

Opposition MPs claim Parliament today rejected 30 questions that touched on 1MDB and SRC.

Gooi had also asked what form of cooperation the government had given to overseas authorities probing 1MDB.

However, his question too was rejected under Standing Order 23(1)(c) and (f), which states that "a question shall not seek information about any matter which is of its nature secret".

Using both these Standing Orders to reject his question baffled the PKR lawmaker.

"How can it be an assumption and secret at the same time? Ridiculous and absurd reasoning," Gooi said.