Ahmad Maslan nominated as Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker

 

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s government has nominated Umno’s Pontian MP Ahmad Maslan as its sole candidate for the position of Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker.

Umno’s Padang Rengas MP Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, when contacted, verified the nomination.

“Yes, confirmed,” he told Malaysiakini.

Ahmad is presently standing trial for money laundering and providing a false statement to the MACC over RM2 million he received from then prime minister Najib Abdul Razak in 2013.

Najib was in July last year sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for abuse of power, criminal breach of trust and money laundering involving RM42 million of funds belonging to state-owned SRC International Sdn Bhd. He is appealing the decision.

The deputy speaker position fell vacant after Umno’s Pengerang MP Azalina Othman Said resigned on Aug 23.

She had cited the need for a “reset” in Parliament and even proposed an opposition candidate.

However, Nazri had shot down the proposal.

“The deputy speaker position still needs to be filled with a government candidate and we will not make way for the opposition to fill it,” he was quoted as saying by Sinar Harian.

Nazri claimed that the opposition is looking to nominate DAP’s Teluk Intan MP Nga Kor Ming, who was previously also the deputy speaker.

Nazri said the opposition shouldn’t be demanding the position when it didn’t make the same offer when Pakatan Harapan was in power.

“The opposition doesn’t need to talk much about being more open by accepting their candidate as the deputy speaker.

“When Harapan was the government, they did not give much space to us as the opposition,” he was quoted as saying. - Mkini