Parliament debates docking a month from PM’s pay
By Shannon Teoh, The Malaysian Insider
Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia allowed MPs to debate today a motion to dock Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s salary by RM22,826.65, or the equivalent of a month’s wages.
He said that although it was purely politically-motivated, he would allow the motion to be debated based on precedent.
“Government backbenchers were allowed to debate a motion to dock the Opposition leader’s salary in the past. If I don’t allow this, then I will be accused of double-standards,” he said.
PKR vice president Chua Tian Chang had filed the motion last week to approve the government’s 2012 Budget with an additional provision to dock the prime minister’s salary.
The Batu MP had said that “this is akin to a motion of no-confidence in the prime minister’s leadership and administration.”
When tabling the motion today, he cited reasons such as the increase in national debt to over 51 per cent of GDP; the deaths of former DAP aide Teoh Beng Hock and Customs officer Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamed while in Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission custody; and the clampdown on the July 9 Bersih rally for electoral reform.
