Speaker rejects Rafizi Ramli's motion to refer the deputy minister to the rights and privileges committee.
In rejecting the motion, Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia said he saw no intention by Ahmad to confuse Parliament.
“After going through the facts submitted by both Pandan (Rafizi) and Pontian (Ahmad), I fail to see the intention to deliberately confuse the Dewan,” he said.
“Referring someone to the House Rights and Privileges Committee is a serious matter and should be treated as such.”
According to the Speaker, three criteria have to be satisfied to refer someone to the committee on such an issue. These are: intent to mislead, factual inaccuracy and wrong arguments.
Before giving his ruling, Pandikar Amin gave time for Rafizi and Ahmad to explain themselves, saying the seriousness of the matter warranted his doing so despite the detailed documents the two had submitted.
Rafizi accused Ahmad of giving inaccurate answers to questions about the infamous “letter of support” to 1MDB bond investors, and by extension the actual debt incurred by the sovereign wealth fund. Ahmad had thus undermined the sanctity of Parliament, he added.
Ahmad, during his turn to explain, insisted that he neither misrepresented facts nor spoke untruths. However, he added, he should have said “there are no other letters of guarantee” instead of “there are no such letters.”
Ahmad was apologetic over the misunderstanding caused by the inexactness in his speech in Parliament on November 6.
Outside the Dewan Rakyat, Rafizi and other opposition MPs told the press that despite the rejection of the motion, the people had won because the Deputy Finance Minister was forced to make a clarification.
“This is a milestone for us,” said Rafizi. “From this point on, ministers who answer questions in Parliament will give closer attention to details and won’t be vague.”
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