TBH group slams speaker's 'implausible' reason for rejecting motions

The Teoh Beng Hock Association for Democratic Advancement has condemned Dewan Rakyat speaker Johari Abdul for rejecting a motion to debate matters surrounding the late political aide.

Its chairperson Ng Yap Hwa said Johari’s decision is “shameful” and the reason he has purportedly given for the rejection is “implausible”.

“As a senior PKR leader who originated from the Reformasi movement, he not only allowed the police to use violence against peaceful protesters under his nose but also rejected the MPs’ motion to debate the issue relating to people’s substantive rights.

“This runs contrary to the concept of justice that his party has long advocated,” Ng (above) said.

On Tuesday, Raub MP Chow Yu Hui announced that he has submitted two motions, one of which is to discuss Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail’s written response dated July 2.

In the response, Saifuddin stated among others that investigations into Teoh’s death had been reopened but reclassified under Section 342 of the Penal Code for wrongful confinement.

Chow said that the written response was the same as a previous response dated March 20 last year, meaning there was no progress since the current government took power.

In addition, Teoh’s family had been demanding the investigation be conducted under Section 302 (murder) instead.

Meanwhile, Chow’s second motion sought the speaker’s permission to urgently debate a request to allow members of the public and civil society groups to enter Parliament and submit any memoranda of demands to the government.

This followed an altercation a day earlier between the police and participants of a justice walk in memory of Teoh’s death when the participants were on the way to Parliament to submit a memorandum.

Chow announced in a statement earlier today that both motions had been rejected.

“One of the reasons given for rejecting the urgent motion is that the home minister has already responded to my parliamentary question on July 2, which is that the police are investigating under Section 342 of the Penal Code (wrongful confinement).”

DAP, PKR’s no-show

Meanwhile, Ng lamented that only Bakri MP Tan Hong Pin had turned up to support Chow when the latter was announcing his motion.

“Why couldn’t the DAP and PKR parliamentarians who used to throw their support behind the Teoh family at the Plaza Masalam and holding memorial services across the country express their support for the motion?

“This would have put enormous pressure on the speaker to pass the motion to debate the issue,” he said.

He urged the government to walk the talk on its promises on human rights reform, including reforms for the police, the MACC, and regulations to allow civil society groups to petition Parliament.

“Please walk the talk to realise a civilised and tolerant Malaysia,” he said.

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