Blog history made in Parliament thanks to Carboncopy
I posted my blog “Tun Mahathir a mere trouble maker?” at 9.41 pm last night.
At 10.17 p.m, Carboncopy posted the announcement that he was “in the process of data entry the list” of 337 MPs/ex-MPs issued with APs into a spreadsheet so that data analysis can be done on it. He pointed out that Senator Yew Teong Look has two APs.
At 2.17 am, he posted another find with double APs – ex-Senator Udam @ George Adam Talek.
At 3.18 am, he posted six double APs receipients and named them.
When I saw his posting early this morning, I commended him for “Very good work…for performing a most valuable public service” and promised to try to highlight his findings in Parliament.
At 11.10 am, at the close of the question-hour, I used Carboncopy’s findings to invoke Standing Order 26(1)(p) to move a privilege motion in Parliament without having to give prior notice to refer Rafidah Aziz to the Committee of Privileges.
After reading my motion, which is reproduced below, I told Parliament that blogging in Malaysia has come of age, with Malaysian bloggers able to directly influence events.
The Speaker, Tan Sri Ramli Ngah, used the very technical ground to disallow the privilege motion as the normal 14-day notice is required, contending that a privilege motion against Rafidah under S.O. 26(1)(p) should have been moved on Tuesday when her answer was given, or some three hours later at most. Ramli is wrong in his decision as demonstrated by ample parliamentary practices and precedents in Commonwealth Parliaments.
I will not argue this point here, keeping it for another occasion. What I wish to focus is the making of history this morning with the blog community making a grand entry into Parliament.
Deputy Prime Minister, Najib Razak, who was present in the House when the privilege motion was moved, was impressed at the speedy intersection of the Malaysian blogosphere with national politics and Parliament. During tea at the MPs lounge after the disallowance of the privilege motion, I asked him whether he had visited my blog. He said he had not.
The following is my privilege motion to refer Rafidah to the Committee of Privileges based on Carboncopy’s findings as posted on my blog in the wee hours of this morning. [Although the motion under Standing Orders 26(1)(p) without having to give prior notice had been disallowed, I have re-submitted the privilege motion to Parliament under Standing Order 27(3), which requires 14-day notice.]
Privilege Motion to refer Rafidah to Committee of Privileges
That under Standing Order 26(1)(p) , the House refers Member of Parliament for Kuala Kangsar and Minister for International Trade and Industry, YB Rafidah Aziz, to the Committee of Privileges to inquire whether there is any breach of privilege in her written answer to YB Ketua Pembangkang and MP for Ipoh Timor Lim Kit Siang on 20th September 2005 when answering the question on “the abuses in the issue of APs to import cars, why the sudden jump in the issue of APs in 2004 and 2005 as compared to previous years, and release the full APs lists since 1987 including
individual APs”, for the following reasons:
*Reason for its selectivity, in only providing the list of MPs and former MPs issued with APs from 2000 to September 2005, when I had asked for three full lists of individual, open and franchise APs issued every year going back to 1978;
*Why the list of MPs issued with APs were only backdated to 2000 and not to 1997 when MPs were first given the entitlement of an AP each;
*Why the list of individual APs issued from 2000 to September 2005 was confined only to MPs who represented only eight per cent of the 4,500 individual APs issued for the period, when a full list had been asked in the question.
*Why the list contained false entries, like that of the Deputy Minister for Federal Territories, Datuk Zulhasnan Rafique, who is listed as No. 158 as having been issued an AP in 2002, but which has been denied by him Utusan Malaysia today, declaring that he never applied nor received an AP since becoming an MP or Deputy Minister.
*Why the list contained six MPs who had been given two APs although an MP is only allowed one AP each during his life time, viz:
1. Yew Teong Look –
Parliamentary Secretary for Federal Territories [No. 89 and 94 for 2001]
2. Ex-Senator Udam @ George Adam Talek [146 and 175] – 2002
3. Ex-Senator Nosimah binti Hashim [29 and 258] - 2000,2004
4. Senator Safinah binti Jusoh [76 and 274] - 2001,2005
5. Senator Siti Zailah bt Mohd Yusof [79 and 238] - 2001,2004
6. Senator Abdul Karim bin Abdul Ghani [44 and 243] - 2000,2004*Whether the selective release of the list of AP receipients confined only to MPs from 2000 to September 2005 was meant to distract attention from the APs scandal, or even more serious, as felt by Barisan Nasional MPs and expressed in a report in the Star today in the article “MPs want Rafidah to personally address AP issue” by Joceline Tan which reported that some Barisan Nasional MPs “thought that Miti’s release of the list was meant as a slap in their faces, a sort of reminder that they have also benefited from the system and should think twice before pointing fingers at Miti” – which is a serious breach of parliamentary privilege in arm-twisting and intimidating MPs from carrying out their parliamentary duties to hold the Minister for International Trade and Industry to strict scrutiny and account, especially as she has become a Minister most infamous for refusing to come to Parliament to recognize the principle of Executive responsibility to Parliament.
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