Najib referred to rights and privileges committee over White Paper embargo
PARLIAMENT | Najib Abdul Razak (BN-Pekan) will be referred to the parliamentary rights and privileges committee for allegedly breaking the embargo on the Felda White Paper a day before it was tabled in the Dewan Rakyat.
The motion to refer him to the committee, which was tabled by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Liew Vui Keong, was put to a bloc vote after a lively debate...
PARLIAMENT | Najib Abdul Razak (BN-Pekan) will be referred to the parliamentary rights and privileges committee for allegedly breaking the embargo on the Felda White Paper a day before it was tabled in the Dewan Rakyat.
The motion to refer him to the committee, which was tabled by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Liew Vui Keong, was put to a bloc vote after a lively debate.
The ensuing debate saw several BN lawmakers insisting that they and Najib be suspended for three months instead.
The motion was approved with 86 votes for and 33 votes against.
During the nearly two-hour debate, Ismail Sabri Yaakob (BN-Bera) claimed that the Felda White Paper had been uploaded onto the official Parliament website before Najib posted extracts from the same document on his Facebook page.
Ahmad Maslan (BN-Pontian) backed up Ismail's claim, saying that the link to the document on the site clearly stated it was uploaded on April 9 – the same day as Najib's Facebook post, and a day before the lifting of the embargo.
If the documents were uploaded onto the website before Najib's post, he argued, then the embargo is void.
Ahmad further insisted on a forensic investigation into the matter before any motion is brought in the Dewan Rakyat against Najib.
Mohd Shahar Abdullah (BN-Paya Besar), and later Ismail also pointed out that Bloomberg had also reported on the contents of the White Paper on April 9.
The White Paper – titled "Towards a Sustainable Felda" – was given to lawmakers a day before the April 10 debate.
An embargo note was labelled on the front cover of the document to remind lawmakers not to make the contents public before the date.
On Tuesday, Najib uploaded a snapshot of the White Paper, and revealed that a 'put option' was included in Felda's purchase of a 37 percent stake in Indonesia's Eagle High Plantation.
'I have a Masters in IT'
Shahar, however, took offence when Fahmi Fadzil (Harapan-Lembah Pantai) said that "this is what happens when those who do not know much about IT talk about IT."
"I have a Masters in IT. I am qualified, my degree is not fake. I had a GPA of 3.95," Shahar said in response.
When Fahmi attempted to continue speaking, Shahar cited the Standing Order of the Dewan Rakyat, saying that the Harapan lawmakers had bad intentions (sangka buruk) against him for implying he was not qualified to speak on IT issues.
Amid the chaos and crosstalking, Dewan Rakyat speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof eventually told Fahmi to retract his statement.
"Retract it, Paya Besar has a Masters in IT," he said, which Fahmi acceded to.
Contents only published online after tabling
During the winding-up of the debate, Liew (below, top-left corner) explained that only the titles of the White Paper's contents were uploaded on April 9.
He added that the full contents were published eight minutes after Economic Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali tabled the paper in the Dewan Rakyat.
When Ahmad attempted to challenge this explanation, Johari Abdul (Harapan-Sungai Petani) claimed he had forensic evidence on the timeline of the documents.
"On April 9, 4.30am GMT, which is 12pm Malaysian time... the link did come out on the Parliament website, but what was uploaded was merely the titles.
"After the economic affairs minister tabled the paper at 11.43am on April 10, all the information in this book (the White Paper), exactly what is in it, was uploaded onto the portal on April 10 at 11.51am 22.52 seconds.
"I hold in my hand what happened, this is the legitimate forensic document. There is no way (the contents of the White Paper) came out before that," he said.
Ronald Kiandee (Harapan-Beluran) had also earlier pointed out that what Najib uploaded onto his Facebook were snapshots of the hard copy of the White Paper, and not screenshots of the soft copy.
This led Johari to ask why Najib had used snapshots of the hard copy if the soft copy was already online, as alleged.
'I will defend Najib'
The Harapan lawmaker also insisted that Najib receive fair and just treatment.
"I will defend Pekan to get fair and just treatment. For that to happen, we ask for him to face the rights and privileges committee so we can find out what happened," Johari said.
He also reminded lawmakers that the decision on whether to punish Najib ultimately rests with the House, as the committee will merely be on a fact-finding mission.
Ismail retorted that the whole debate would then be pointless, as a decision to penalise Najib would be inevitable seeing as the government has a simple majority.
"Actually, the pre-judgement has already been made. We already know what the result will be because in terms of majority, of course the government will win.
"Whatever we do, the result is inevitable. If we want to truly be fair to Pekan, then retract this motion," the opposition leader said.
Reverting to three-month suspension
Before Ismail said this, however, Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) (photo) suggested that the motion should be reverted back to what it was initially: that Najib be suspended from the Dewan for three months.
"If you want to be oppressive, go all the way (Alang-alang zalim, zalim lah sekali)" he said.
Several BN lawmakers latched onto this idea, especially Shahidan Kassim (BN-Arau), who kept interrupting and insisting on the three-month suspension for the rest of the debate.
"To heighten the oppression and cruelty, go back to the three-month suspension. Suspend all of us here," he exclaimed.
As Liew attempted to wind up the debate, Shahidan kept speaking into the microphone, "Suspend. Suspend. Suspend for three months."
When Ahmad interjected Liew's winding-up to bring up the same point about the White Paper being uploaded onto the Parliament website, the speaker told him there is no need to reiterate his point so many times.
"I request to be suspended," Ahmad responded.
BN lawmakers leave early
Though the motion was first put to a voice vote, some lawmakers insisted on a bloc vote, which the speaker relented to.
As the bloc votes were being counted, Shahidan (below) said several times, "I support the three-month suspension. I don't want anything else."
The House continued to be filled with chatter and shouting during the counting of the votes, prompting the speaker to say, "It is so noisy, I cannot think".
Right after the motion was approved, as well as the next motion on appointing Noraini Ahmad (BN-Parit Sulong) as the Public Accounts Committee chairperson, Ismail Mohamed Said (BN-Kuala Krau) said the remaining motions on the Order Paper were not so important.
As such, he requested that the lawmakers be allowed to leave early. Then, he and a number of other BN lawmakers proceeded to leave the Dewan Rakyat.
As the remaining BN lawmakers continued to trickle out of the House, Shahidan stood up and said, "Thank you, bye bye and see you in Rantau," before leaving, referring to the by-election for the Negeri Sembilan seat this Saturday.
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