Refer opposition PAC members to rights committee if rules violated again, BN MP says
(Malay Mail Online) – Public Accounts Committee (PAC) member Liang Teck Meng from Barisan Nasional (BN) accused today his committee colleagues from the opposition of issuing misleading statements about the committee’s interview with 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) chief Arul Kanda Kandasamy.
Liang said it was not true that Arul Kanda was unable to answer the questions put to him and called for the lawmakers to be referred to Parliament’s Rights and Privileges Committee should they ignore PAC rules and prejudice the committee’s proceedings again.
“For reasons that I cannot explain, two of my fellow PAC members saw fit to make statements after the PAC session yesterday that were misleading and designed to prejudice the public on PAC proceedings,” Liang said in a statement, without naming them.
“If this blatant disregard for the PAC rules and continued deliberate prejudicing of the PAC proceedings should occur again, I strongly urge the Speaker of the House to take appropriate action on them and even we should consider to refer them to the Parliament’s Rights and Privileges Committee,” the Simpang Renggam MP from Gerakan added.
Liang was likely referring to PAC members Tony Pua from the DAP and William Leong from PKR, both of whom had given comments to the press after the PAC’s interview with Arul Kanda on Friday.
Pua told reporters yesterday that he personally felt Arul Kanda’s answers were “incomplete” as the latter could only speak of issues during his tenure as CEO that only began in January this year.
News portal Malaysiakini reported Leong as saying that the PAC chief was urged to “call those who were in charge when the debts were incurred”.
Liang said today that Arul Kanda only chose not to fully answer one question, throughout his three-hour session yesterday and a previous five-hour interview, because it was related to an allegation in the media on matters related to an external party, but did not elaborate on what the question was.
“In my opinion, Mr Arul Kanda is not in a position to comment on that particular question as it relates to a third party and it was from a speculative unproven media article instead of the Auditor General report on 1MDB.
“This selective and partial release of information by these parties does not give a true and fair picture of what transpired in the proceedings yesterday. In my opinion, such selective release of information seems designed to politicise the proceedings again, and again mislead the public and prejudice our proceedings,” he said.
Hasan said in a statement yesterday that he was “satisfied” with Arul Kanda’s explanation.
