Tun Mahathir a mere trouble-maker?
Datuk Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah, Deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry, took MPs and the Malaysian people for simpletons when he told Parliament during question-hour today that there had been “no irregularities” in the issuance of Approved Permits (AP) to import cars.
This was why I prefaced my supplementary question expressing outrage as to how Husni could dismiss the AP scandal as a non-issue when it had rocked the country for the past three, four months; the specific agenda of several Cabinet meetings and the hot topic of the July UMNO General Assembly. Pointedly, I asked whether this meant that former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, a major player in the AP hurricane as Proton Adviser, was a mere “trouble-maker” just like the UMNO delegates who had expressed their unhappiness over the issue at the UMNO General Assembly?
May be, Husni should not take the full blame for the answer which showed utter contempt for the intelligence of MPs as he was only reading the script which had already been written out by his Minister, Rafidah Aziz. In his answer to Question No. 2 from the Barisan Nasional (BN) MP for Tebrau Teng Boon Soon on “the reason for the abuse in the issuance of AP”, Husni repeated word-for-word the same language used by Rafidah in her written answer to me yesterday which attached the list of 337 MPs given APs – “tidak ada berlaku sebarang penyelewengan dalam pengagihan AP”.
BN MPs were an angry lot this morning and led by the trio, Wan Junaidi Jaafar (Santubong), Mohamed Aziz (Sri Gading) and Ahmad Zainuddin Omar (Larut), demanded that Huzni should hold an immediate press conference to clear the air and dispel the impression that they are involved in AP irregularities importing cars in a big way when they are only entitled to one AP each.
I fully sympathise with BN MPs aggrieved by the public perception from yesterday’s list, giving the impression that they are AP big-timers although not in the league of helicoptering AP “King of Kings”. When there is an injustice, it must be corrected. I may disagree or even dislike certain BN MPs but I will defend their right to such elementary justice.
I would have been happier however if the BN MPs had been equally if not more outraged at the clumsy attempt at an official cover-up of the AP scandal exemplified by Husni’s answer that there had been “no irregularities” in the AP issuance and the irresponsibility of Rafidah Aziz in her absence from Parliament to answer for the AP scandal for three successive days.
This was why during the debate on the Banking and Financial Institutions (Amendment) Bill after question time, I interjected during the speech of BN MP for Jerai, Badruddin bin Amiruldin to berate BN MPs for being “dumb and deaf” on the APs scandal for the past three days, whether on Rafidah’s absence or the ridiculous claim of “no irregularities”
I had challenged Husni during my supplementary to explain the creation of three “AP King of Kings”, Tan Sri Nasimuddin SM Amin, Datuk Syed Azman Syed Ibrahim and Datuk Mohd Haniff Abdul Aziz, who were collectively issued 33,218 APs or 50.1% of total AP allocation for 2004 and 28,283 APs or 41% of total AP allocation for 2005. At the average worth of RM30,000 per AP, the three “AP King of Kings” stood to make some RM996 million for 2004 and RM850 million this year or a total of RM1.8 billion for these two years.
I am still waiting for an acceptable answer from Husni or Rafidah.
Today, I invoked Dewan Rakyat Standing Order 23(4) to ask the Speaker, Tan Sri Ramli Ngah (who has just returned from the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Organisation meeting in Vientiane) to direct the Minister for International Trade and Industry to give me a full and proper answer to my question yesterday – which only provided the list of MPs issued with APs from 2000 to September 2005, when I had asked for a full list of individual, open and franchise APs issued every year going back to 1978.
Ramli said he would act on my request and Husni promised me at the parliament lobby later that a full and proper answer would be furnished covering the past 27 years.
I pursued with Husni one of my supplementary questions which he had failed to answer satisfactorily and which piqued widespread public interest – whether every Malaysian citizen is entitled to apply for an AP once in his lifetime.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz made this claim in Parliament yesterday, as reported by Sun, New Straits Times and Utusan Malaysia.
Nazri said: "It is not a privilege and everyone could apply for them, including students."
The long-and-short of a very convoluted answer by Husni both inside and outside the House is that there is no such right for every Malaysian citizen to be entitled to an AP in his lifetime – unless he is a returned student or had worked overseas under certain conditions.
Sorry to disappoint several visitors to this blog who had clearly expressed their interest to exercise their citizenship right to apply for a “once in a lifetime” AP – as such right only exists in the figment of Nazri’s imagination.
Before I end, I wish to thank all who emailed to inquire about inaccessibility to this blog as it was down for some five hours during midday.
This was why I prefaced my supplementary question expressing outrage as to how Husni could dismiss the AP scandal as a non-issue when it had rocked the country for the past three, four months; the specific agenda of several Cabinet meetings and the hot topic of the July UMNO General Assembly. Pointedly, I asked whether this meant that former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, a major player in the AP hurricane as Proton Adviser, was a mere “trouble-maker” just like the UMNO delegates who had expressed their unhappiness over the issue at the UMNO General Assembly?
May be, Husni should not take the full blame for the answer which showed utter contempt for the intelligence of MPs as he was only reading the script which had already been written out by his Minister, Rafidah Aziz. In his answer to Question No. 2 from the Barisan Nasional (BN) MP for Tebrau Teng Boon Soon on “the reason for the abuse in the issuance of AP”, Husni repeated word-for-word the same language used by Rafidah in her written answer to me yesterday which attached the list of 337 MPs given APs – “tidak ada berlaku sebarang penyelewengan dalam pengagihan AP”.
BN MPs were an angry lot this morning and led by the trio, Wan Junaidi Jaafar (Santubong), Mohamed Aziz (Sri Gading) and Ahmad Zainuddin Omar (Larut), demanded that Huzni should hold an immediate press conference to clear the air and dispel the impression that they are involved in AP irregularities importing cars in a big way when they are only entitled to one AP each.
I fully sympathise with BN MPs aggrieved by the public perception from yesterday’s list, giving the impression that they are AP big-timers although not in the league of helicoptering AP “King of Kings”. When there is an injustice, it must be corrected. I may disagree or even dislike certain BN MPs but I will defend their right to such elementary justice.
I would have been happier however if the BN MPs had been equally if not more outraged at the clumsy attempt at an official cover-up of the AP scandal exemplified by Husni’s answer that there had been “no irregularities” in the AP issuance and the irresponsibility of Rafidah Aziz in her absence from Parliament to answer for the AP scandal for three successive days.
This was why during the debate on the Banking and Financial Institutions (Amendment) Bill after question time, I interjected during the speech of BN MP for Jerai, Badruddin bin Amiruldin to berate BN MPs for being “dumb and deaf” on the APs scandal for the past three days, whether on Rafidah’s absence or the ridiculous claim of “no irregularities”
I had challenged Husni during my supplementary to explain the creation of three “AP King of Kings”, Tan Sri Nasimuddin SM Amin, Datuk Syed Azman Syed Ibrahim and Datuk Mohd Haniff Abdul Aziz, who were collectively issued 33,218 APs or 50.1% of total AP allocation for 2004 and 28,283 APs or 41% of total AP allocation for 2005. At the average worth of RM30,000 per AP, the three “AP King of Kings” stood to make some RM996 million for 2004 and RM850 million this year or a total of RM1.8 billion for these two years.
I am still waiting for an acceptable answer from Husni or Rafidah.
Today, I invoked Dewan Rakyat Standing Order 23(4) to ask the Speaker, Tan Sri Ramli Ngah (who has just returned from the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Organisation meeting in Vientiane) to direct the Minister for International Trade and Industry to give me a full and proper answer to my question yesterday – which only provided the list of MPs issued with APs from 2000 to September 2005, when I had asked for a full list of individual, open and franchise APs issued every year going back to 1978.
Ramli said he would act on my request and Husni promised me at the parliament lobby later that a full and proper answer would be furnished covering the past 27 years.
I pursued with Husni one of my supplementary questions which he had failed to answer satisfactorily and which piqued widespread public interest – whether every Malaysian citizen is entitled to apply for an AP once in his lifetime.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz made this claim in Parliament yesterday, as reported by Sun, New Straits Times and Utusan Malaysia.
Nazri said: "It is not a privilege and everyone could apply for them, including students."
The long-and-short of a very convoluted answer by Husni both inside and outside the House is that there is no such right for every Malaysian citizen to be entitled to an AP in his lifetime – unless he is a returned student or had worked overseas under certain conditions.
Sorry to disappoint several visitors to this blog who had clearly expressed their interest to exercise their citizenship right to apply for a “once in a lifetime” AP – as such right only exists in the figment of Nazri’s imagination.
Before I end, I wish to thank all who emailed to inquire about inaccessibility to this blog as it was down for some five hours during midday.
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