An opposition member of Parliament was told to withdraw the word "robbers" today when he implied that Barisan Nasional MPs were thieves who knew about picking their right targets.

Mustafa Ali (PAS-Dungun) told the House that the opposition-led Terengganu government had managed to prepare its financial report for year 2000 within record time.

However, Jamaluddin Jarjis (BN-Rompin) said that was possible because the state government had "no money".

Mustafa then replied, "Only robbers knew whether the ones they wanted to rob had money."

A shouting match started with several BN and opposition MPs standing up and pointing fingers at each other before deputy speaker Lim Si Cheng finally intervened and requested Mustafa to withdraw the word "robbers", to which the MP agreed.

Earlier, Mustafa was constantly interrupted by BN MPs while debating the 2002 budget.

Mustafa, who is also PAS vice-president, criticised the government's move to increase petrol and diesel prices by 10 sen per litre.

Mustafa said the decision which will eventually burden the rakyat was seemingly made up for by a reduction of one percent of individual income tax and a half-month bonus for civil servants.

"The prime minister (Dr Mahathir Mohamad) is a modern 'snake charmer' who knows how to charm the people while deluding them," said Mustafa.

Mustafa said Mahathir knew least about fiscal policies compared with the previous finance ministers - Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Daim Zainuddin and Anwar Ibrahim.

He said all the consumer associations in the country would oppose the recent price hike in petrol and diesel.

"However, the MPs in Umno, MCA and MIC continue to say that the budget is good. These are all 'ball carriers' who are hoping for a seat come next election. Yet, we do not know if the prime minister would still be around in 2004," said Mustafa.

Ruckus

Mustafa was interrupted about five times by Ruhanie Ahmad (BN-Parit Sulong), Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan), Noh Omar (BN-Tanjung Karang) and Mohd Zain Mohamed (BN-Shah Alam), who stood up to seek clarification from Mustafa.

Ruhanie and Bung Moktar raised points of order several times to stop Mustafa from being prejudiced against the prime minister but was told to sit down by the deputy speaker.

Lim appeared to be having a difficult time trying to appease the MPs who wanted to ask questions but were refused by Mustafa who said he had only 30 minutes to debate the issues.

Despite a point of order being raised by Saupi Daud (Keadilan-Tanah Merah) to stop the people's representatives from "creating disturbances" during parliamentary sessions, the BN MPs continued to raise a ruckus over every point raised by Mustafa.

The 'commotion', however, stopped after Mustafa withdrew the word "robbers" and ended his debate.

Land issue

Mustafa also responded to an article published by Malay daily Berita Harian with the headlines 'PAS admitted to approving 4,000 acres of land'.

Mustafa, who is a key official in the state government, said the land was approved for integrated agriculture as the land, which had been previously neglected by the BN government, was an important resource for the people to achieve sustainable lives.

He added the move was a pro-active measure to reduce dependency on imports of livestock and food.

Mustafa also denied that there were illegal logging activities carried out in Kelantan or Terengganu, both states ruled by PAS.

He claimed that the states which carried out those activities were Pahang, Perak and Selangor.

He also criticised the Bakun Dam project for not only wiping out the natural forest in the area but also driving out the local indigenous peoples and turning them into "refugees".