Pakatan using ‘tyranny of the minority’, claims Nazri

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 – Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz denied the opposition’s “tyranny of the majority” accusation against Barisan Nasional today, charging instead that Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers used the “tyranny of the minority” in the Dewan Rakyat.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s department told reporters that the opposition bench often behaved like “tyrants” in the House, capitalising on the belief that BN “feared” punishing PR lawmakers.

“What are they talking about? They are using sheer tyranny of the minority. You think they have no tyranny in them?

“Because knowing that the BN is always so conscious that we may be blamed for victimising them if we use this so-called brute majority, so they will say anything in the House; lie to the House; insult the Speaker – this is the tyranny of the minority,” he said when met at his office here today.

Nazri (picture) was responding to the opposition’s claim that BN would use brute majority to push the suspensions of four PR MPs, including Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, tomorrow.

Anwar, along with PKR’s Azmin Ali and R. Sivarasa, as well as DAP’s Karpal Singh, are expected to be suspended for six months from Parliament tomorrow over the Israel-APCO issue.

Anwar is being censured by the Rights and Privileges Committee which, after four meetings, decided that the PR de facto leader should be punished for his remarks in the House on March 17.

Anwar had accused APCO Worldwide, the image consultant employed by the Najib administration, of being behind both the 1 Malaysia and 1 Israel concepts.

But today, three more MPs were recommended for suspension through a motion notice by Nazri, claiming that the three had committed contempt of the House when they revealed the committee’s findings before it was tabled before Parliament.

In his motion, Nazri said the three had violated Standing Order 85 which stipulates that any statement recorded before the legislative panel must be embargoed until its final report is tabled before Parliament.

“On December 6, the Gombak MP (Azmin), through an emergency motion under Standing Order 18(1) had touched on the statements and a letter that was furnished to the committee on December 3.

“The MPs from Bukit Gelugor (Karpal) and Subang (Sivarasa) had also insulted and violated the rights and privileges of an MP. It is an insult to the House,” it was said on the Order Paper.

Nazri said today that the three should be punished for they had clearly committed contempt of the House, an offence that should not be ignored.

“This is somethig which we have to do because clearly they have committed contempt by revealing privileged information which should not be revealed before the report is tabled.

“This is a very clear cut act of contempt so why shouldn’t we punish them?” he said.

The Padang Rengas MP said that the reason why the motion to suspend Karpal, Azmin and Sivarasa was filed at the last minute was because BN did not want to delay debates on the Budget.

“That is why we chose to do it during the tabling of the bills,” he said.

When told that such a move would likely bring a negative impact on BN, Nazri agreed but added that it did not mean the ruling coalition feared punishing its foes for their wrongdoing.

“There is no appropriate time to do this, a time when it will not badly affect us. But we cannot use this as a facto to reconsider our decision.

“The most important thing is that we enforce the Standing Orders,” he said.

Nazri also claimed that this was the best Parliamentary session to punish the opposition MPs as it was near year-end and was the last sitting for the year.

“Tomorrow is the last day of the session and there is no more Parliament after this for the year. We all go for holidays... there is Christmas and New Year and then by next year, everything is forgotten,” he said, smiling.

It is widely speculated that the Najib administration will be calling for snap polls by the first quarter of next year.

Nazri added that it was important to teach the opposition a lesson and prove to its fiery leaders that BN was not afraid of taking action against them.

“Do not think that just because they believe this decision would hurt BN, that we do not have the resolve or that we are not resolute enough to take this action.

“They are harping on the fact that we are scared and therefore, we do not dare to do it. We want to tell them once and for all – do not play-play with me,” he said.

When told of the claim by a DAP MP that BN’s decision to suspend four PR MPs was to regain its two-thirds majority in Parliament, Nazri laughed and called the opposition “stupid”.

“Tell them that they are stupid because two-thirds means two-thirds out of 222 MPs, not two-thirds of those present in the House. Bodoh (stupid),” he said.