‘Dr M must say sorry before talking about empowering Parliament’

Dewan Rakyat Speaker claims former PM was among those responsible for repealing the Parliamentary Services Act 1963 in 1992 that separated powers of Parliament and PM.

(FMT) – Dewan Rakyat Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia has urged former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad to apologise before claiming that the Speaker had failed to empower the parliamentary system.

He said Mahathir was among the individuals responsible for repealing the Parliamentary Services Act 1963, which separated the powers of Parliament and the prime minister.

“In order to empower the Parliament, Mahathir has to first say sorry because it was during his time in 1992 that the Parliamentary Services Act 1963 was removed from the books.

“Why was that not mentioned? If they truly want to empower Parliament, then they have to talk about this,” he said during a press conference outside the Dewan.

Pandikar was responding to a statement by Mahathir who defended the parliamentary freedom that existed under his 22-year stint as prime minister, saying it was more democratic than under the administration of current Prime Minister Najib Razak.

The Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) chairman accused Pandikar of being one-sided in banning MPs from speaking on the 1MDB controversy.

Pandikar said Mahathir had done the same thing when he had forbidden MPs from speaking about Perwaja’s losses in 1988.

“In 1988, the Gelang Patah MP had forwarded a motion to talk about Perwaja, which had suffered losses of RM10 billion.

“However, the speaker had said that Tun Mahathir had forbidden the subject from being discussed,” Pandikar said.