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Speaker refuses to cite Guan Eng, Opposition MPs stage walkout

Speaker refuses to cite Guan Eng, Opposition MPs stage walkout

KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition MPs staged a walkout from the Dewan Rakyat today after Speaker refused to cite Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng for allegedly misleading the House.

Earlier, Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob submitted a motion to refer Lim to the Rights and Privileges Committee after the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found no evidence to support the latter’s claim last year that the Najib administration has “robbed” the public of RM19.4 billion in tax refunds.

However, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof rejected the motion and defended Lim, saying that the latter had used the words “robbery” and “robber” figuratively to describe how Goods and Services Tax (GST) revenue was unlawfully diverted, which the PAC investigation found to have happened.

Ismail Sabri insisted that the terms “robbery” and “robber” have specific legal meanings as contained in the Penal Code and was adamant that the finance minister must be held accountable for misleading MPs.

“The accusation of robbery is wrong because the money was still in an account but not the GST trust account but in a Consolidated Account.

“That means this was an accounting and procedural mistake. Robbery means the money was used,” said Ismail Sabri.

Ariff then told Ismail Sabri to submit a motion to further debate the PAC findings if he wanted to go into the details of the findings.

However, Ismail Sabri demanded the Speaker to state whether he agreed that there was a “robbery” as Lim alleged, which prompted angry responses from government backbenchers such as RSN Rayer (PH-Jelutong) and Khoo Poay Tiong (PH-Kota Melaka)

Both began referring to the House’s Standing Orders to state that the Speaker’s decisions are final, triggering a row with the Opposition aisle.

Khairy Jamaluddin (BN-Rembau) defended Ismail Sabri, saying that based on the auditor-general’s statement to the PAC, Lim had made an error when he said the RM19.4 billion amount he cited was verified by the relevant authorities.

“I refer to the PAC report. In the report by the National Audit Department, up till April 10, 2019 the status of approved but unpaid refund is RM6 billion, not RM19.4 billion. That’s why the GST money was used for other developments.

“If there was an admission from the National Audit Department that the amount has already been cleared and the verified input tax credit was at RM6 billion, why should the money be in the GST (refund) account instead of being used to help with other cash flows?” he said.

Khairy said such an error was enough to haul Lim to the Rights and Privileges Committee.

However, Ariff insisted that a new motion must be submitted to debate the PAC report but his ruling caused arguments among the federal lawmakers, with some saying Lim should at least retract his “robbery” remark.

All Umno MPs present then began exiting the House in protest except for Datuk Seri Ismail Mohamed Said (BN-Kuala Krau) and Tan Sri Noh Omar (BN-Tanjong Karang) who stayed to continue debating the matter with the Speaker.

Ismail Mohamed referred to Standing Orders 36 (4) and 36 (6) and demanded the Speaker rule on whether “robber” and “robbery” were acceptable terms in Parliament and whether the minister would withdraw his remarks.

However, Willie Mongin (PH-Puncak Borneo) interrupted Ismail Mohamed’s time on the floor, leading to a fresh exchange that ended with Ismail Mohamed calling Willie a ‘pondan’ (effeminate).

Irate, Ariif shot back and ruled that words such as “robber”, “robbery”, “pondan”, “communists” were unparliamentary terms.

In a press conference later, Khairy described Ariif as a ‘useless Speaker.’

“I don’t know how he managed to become a judge. Useless,” he quipped.

Training his guns on LIm, Khairy claimed that the minister had lied in the Dewan Rakyat by claiming the RM19.4 billion sum were good to pay.

“In the auditor-general’s findings, only RM6 billion had been approved as of April out of the RM19 billion. So, if there is only RM6 billion up to April, imagine what it’s like last year?

“I’m made to understand that only RM1 billion in claims had been approved.

“So why keep the money in the GST account? It would be better for the money to be used for other development and administrative work. That’s cash-flow management, and the law allows the finance minister to transfer money from the GST fund to the consolidated account. That’s not a crime.

“In my debates with the finance minister, he said the RM19.4 billion had been approved. He said ‘yes, it’s approved’. But in the PAC report, clearly, it’s not,” he said.

The Opposition members later walked back into Dewan Rakyat after the press conference.