Pandikar to probe claim Najib misled Parliament

Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia said he will investigate a motion that claimed Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak misled the House in his Budget speech.

The motion to refer Najib to the Rights and Privileges Committee was brought by Steven Sim (DAP-Bukit Mertajam)

Sim had asked Pandikar for a ruling on the matter at the end of Question Time, but Pandikar said he needed time to investigate the claim.

“Give me a chance to investigate, then I will make a ruling,” Pandikar said, explaining that there must be a prime facie case before someone can be referred to the committee.

The speaker was bemused by the motion.

“Parliament now is extraordinary… Never before has there been in any parliament where there were discrepancies to the point that the one who tabled the budget is accused of misleading the House,” he said.

Asked to clarify why he wanted to refer Najib to the Rights and Privileges Committee, Sim said some of the things Najib announced in his budget speech “is either not found in or substantially differed from the budget documents.”

Sim and Ong Kian Ming (DAP-Serdang) had previously listed several discrepancies in the Budget speech.

One example is that in his speech, Najib said the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will spend RM1 billion to improve the coverage and quality of broadband nationwide.

However, Sim said in the estimated federal expenditure for the Communication and Multimedia Ministry, which governs the MCMC, only RM57.5 million is allocated under “development expenditure” for the broadband project. - Mkini