PARLIAMENT | Dewan Rakyat speaker Azhar Azizan Harun has again rejected calls for the Lower House to debate claims over Petronas assets by the purported heirs of the Sulu sultanate.
In expanding his sub judice ruling, Azhar said debating the matter could reveal the government's legal strategies to the enemy.
"Do we want as we are debating this, I don't know what will be said, the government's strategy revealed, and there are criticisms of it.
"Then the other side can learn (our strategy). Would that not hurt the government's interest in its litigation proceedings? Do we want to show our strategy to the world?
"The first rule of litigation is the element of surprise, the first rule of war is the same," he said in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Hence, the speaker said it was his responsibility to ensure that the government's strategies were not exposed.
The purported heirs of the last Sulu sultan, Sultan Jamalul Kiram II, are using international legal processes in a bid to claim US$14.92 billion (RM66.38 billion) in overdue lease payments for Sabah.
The arbitration process was initiated in response to Malaysia cutting off the annual lease payments of RM5,300 to the Sulu sultanate in 2013.
Following this, the Sulu side, via their lawyers, managed to seize two Luxembourg-incorporated subsidiaries of Petronas worth US$2 billion (RM8.9 billion).
Malaysia is challenging the Sulu claim in courts in Spain and France - which Azhar argues makes any debate on the matter run afoul of Parliament standing orders on sub judice.
Azhar said this in response to objections raised by Mohamed Hanipa Maidin (Pakatan Harapan-Sepang), arguing that the sub judice rulings made yesterday and the day before were incorrect as the rule should be used on a case-by-case basis.
Submit oral questions instead
Earlier, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim (Harapan-Port Dickson) argued that Parliament should be allowed to debate the issue without touching on the matters in court.
This he said would allow MPs to officially declare support for the government's efforts to protect national interests if it is the right move.
However, Azhar said that the emergency motions sought under Section 18(2) of the standing orders are only "discussions", and not an actual debate with any outcomes.
Hence, he advised MPs to bring up the matter in the Dewan Rakyat via oral questions instead.
Submissions for oral questions are usually made before the Dewan Rakyat convenes. However, MPs do have an avenue to submit questions for minister question time which is every Tuesday and Thursday.
Meanwhile, Anwar said that any Sabah MPs that do not support efforts to debate the Sulu matter in Parliament should be punished by Sabahans. - Mkini
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