Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Aziz should not be let off the hook for mistakenly saying that the judges affected by the 1988 judiciary crisis were forced into early retirement instead of being fired.
DAP member of parliament, Karpal Singh, today said he had ‘spotted’ Nazri’s "misleading statement" even before the minister had made the clarification yesterday. The veteran opposition leader is now asking Deputy Speaker Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar to take action.
"On Monday, I had called upon the deputy speaker to refer Nazri to the Committee of Privileges for having misled the Dewan last week," said Karpal in a statement today.
Just a week ago, Nazri in a shocking move had revealed to the Dewan the amount of ex-gratia payment made by the government to judges Salleh Abas, Wan Sulaiman Pawan, George Seah, Azmi Kamaruddin, the late Eusoffe Abdoolcadeer and Wan Hamzah Mohamed Salleh.
While doing so, he also told the Dewan that the judges were not sacked but were asked to retire early.
Yesterday, however, Nazri admitted to reporters in Parliament lobby that he had made a mistake and clarified that the judges were indeed sacked.
This clarification did go down well with Karpal who said "it was wrong for Nazri to make the clarification in the (Parliament) lobby and not in the Dewan".
"He should have permission from the Speaker to make a ministerial statement in the Dewan so that MPs could have an opportunity to question him.
"Nazri has chosen the coward’s way out of his predicament he had placed himself in by having misled the House," read Karpal’s statement.
'I was suspended for six months'
Karpal also said there should be no double standards when dealing with Nazri’s mistake and referred in his statement today to an incident where he felt he was unjustly punished.
"In 2004, BN with its brute majority in the Dewan referred me to the Committee of Privileges for merely saying during the swearing-in ceremony of MPs that they were required to raise their right hand when taking their oath of office.
"What I stated was right and in keeping with the circular sent out by the Speaker that all MPs, during the oath-taking ceremony, were required to raise their right hand," he said.
"Despite this, I was referred to the Committee of Privileges which, without even giving me an opportunity to be heard, recommended that I be suspended for six months.
"There should be no discrimination in Nazri’s case. His position as minister should make no difference.
"The deputy speaker should ensure that his ruling does not contravene the provisions of Article 8(1) of the federal constitution which states that all persons are equal before the law," stressed Karpal - malaysiakini.com
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