There must be nobility to apologise for mistakes, Haniff tells Guan Eng

Leaders in 'New Malaysia' should not shy away from apologising when they make mistakes, lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla said today in reference to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng's handling of the GST refunds issue.

Haniff – who has acted as a lawyer for Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad –  noted that the Public Accounts Committee found "procedural irregularity" in how the previous government managed GST refunds, but pointed out that this did not amount to "robbery," as Lim had claimed.

"In the 'New Malaysia' – where we want rightfulness, uprightness, fairness, professionalism and efficiency – it is normal for humans to make mistakes," he said in a statement to Malaysiakini.

"But what is more important is that when there is a mistake, there must be the nobleness to apologise for it." 

According to the PAC, GST revenue did not go missing, but was deposited into the government's consolidated revenue account instead of the GST trust fund as required by law.

The money was subsequently used for operational and development expenditure, leading to a shortfall for GST refunds.

"Procedural irregularity, however high it may be, does not amount to criminality in the sense that the money had been robbed," Haniff said.

"What happened at the time when people read the statement by Lim in Parliament, people got the impression that independent of the SRC International, 1MDB, Retirement Fund Inc (Kwap) and Lembaga Tabung Haji problems, the previous government had also robbed the GST (trust fund).

"If there was an error, to me, Lim – independent of the motion to refer him to the Rights and Privileges Committee which was dismissed by the Dewan Rakyat speaker – should in light of 'New Malaysia', apologise to Parliament for using very very strong word implying criminality when there was none on the GST issue."

In his own defence, Lim had indicated that his position did not differ from the PAC, but that the latter was using more parliamentary language.

Dewan Rakyat speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof today ruled that the word 'robber', commonly used by MPs in reference in the 1MDB scandal, is unparliamentary. - Mkini