Bakri MP apologises for violating Pakatan boycott order
Clara Chooi, TMI
DAP’s Bakri MP Er Teck Hwa has apologised to his party for mistakenly attending today’s parliamentary briefing despite an order to boycott the meet as a symbolic gesture in Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) reforms protest.
The second-term parliamentarian said he had missed the email instruction sent to all 38 DAP lawmakers last week as he had not gone through all correspondence in his email inbox.
“This is my mistake for not thoroughly going through all the messages and email for this specific order to boycott today’s briefing and stirring up more controversy on [the] current political scenario,” he said in a statement here.
“I would like to express my most sincere apologies for my inappropriate actions and humbly accept any disciplinary action that might be taken against me.”
Er raised eyebrows in Parliament today when he was the sole MP from the 89-member opposition bloc to attend a scheduled briefing.
When approached by reporters, Er said he felt the briefing was important and the decision to attend it was of his own initiative.
“Briefing day is important, we want to see if there are new rules and so on,” said Er, an MP well-known among Parliament circles for his halting Bahasa Malaysia and persistence in the Dewan Rakyat.
Hours later in his press statement, however, Er admitted that despite not seeing the official email from his party, he had been well informed about the boycott as it was reported in the media.
But he pointed out that it was standard procedure for the party leadership to convey orders via text messages or emails.
