Ibrahim Ali: Najib is no coward

The prime minister has other duties to do other than appear in Parliament for the debate on Budget 2013, says the Independent MP.

KUALA LUMPUR: Pasir MAS MP Ibrahim Ali today came to the defence of Najib Tun Razak for not appearing in yesterday’s Budget 2013 debate, stating that it was not an issue as the prime minister has other duties to attend to.

“[Najib] has duties to do, so when [Opposition leader] Anwar [Ibrahim] spoke [during the Budget 2013 debate], I know that the prime minister is in his office and in front of his TV,” he told FMT.

“So while listening to Anwar’s speech, he received a lot of people, was in meetings… He has to do his job; he cannot stay there for two hours just listening to all this rhetoric,” Ibrahim added.

Najib, who is also finance minister, received flak from netizens as well as opposition leaders for his absence in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

“The tradition during the debate is for the finance minister [Najib] to be here. But when I invite him to debate, he doesn’t dare. Now, even in Parliament, he doesn’t dare show up,” Anwar had said yesterday in his speech.

“He lets his backbenchers defend (the budget) but they have never been in the cabinet. They don’t know the figures and can only depend on the Departments of Statistics,” he added.

PKR vice-president Tian Chua also told FMT today that it was “cowardly” of Najib to not sit in on the debate over the budget after blatantly attacking the opposition in his speech on Friday.

While Najib did not explicitly mention the opposition pact, the prime minister had said: “This government has never promised the moon, the stars or the galaxy. We have never painted a pretty picture based on wishful thinking.”

“As a responsible government, we continue to speak the truth, even though it may be unpleasant. We have never misled the rakyat with tall tales,” he had said.

Tian said that Najib’s absence “just shows that he’s not courageous enough to accept criticism.”

Najib to reply later

But Ibrahim said that “people can say whatever they want, because people don’t know the prime minister has his duties.”

“All the speeches in parliament are recorded on Handsard so the prime minister can reply to that.

“It’s a verbatim report in the Handsard, so what’s the big issue [over Najib not attending the debate?],” asked the independent MP.

Ibrahim said that, according to the ministry, Najib would provide a reply to the queries made during yesterday’s debate within eight days.

Asked to comment on the fact that Najib had been accused of cowardice by certain quarters, Ibrahim said: “What coward bullsh*t is that? Najib is not a coward at all.”