PARLIAMENT | Baling MP Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim had a taste of his own medicine in the Dewan Rakyat earlier today after he fiercely attacked Pakatan Harapan MPs, whom he alleged as being cowards for not reprimanding Dr Mahathir Mohamad (Pejuang-Langkawi) over the collapse of Harapan government in 2020.
In his debate over the Anti-Hopping Bill, Azeez (above), who is from Umno, claimed that Harapan lawmakers were only making noise in the Parliament about party hopping issues and blaming others over the collapse of their administration.
He went on to say that they should have instead put the blame solely on Mahathir, who was the prime minister then, for resigning without consulting other top leaders in the coalition.
"(However), not even once did they dare to reprimand Langkawi in this House for his mistake in betraying the rakyat's mandate.
"This (collapse of Harapan government) happened because of who? It was because of Langkawi's doing alone," he said.
Azeez also appeared to be mocking Harapan leaders including their chairperson Anwar Ibrahim, saying that Umno and BN had resolved that they would be in the opposition for five years and were hoping to see Anwar take over from Mahathir as PM.
He claimed that his party never had the intention to take over the government before the next general election.
"(The matter of support) should be decided in the Parliament, not by merely sending (his resignation) letter through the fax machine," Azeez said, referring to Mahathir's letter to Istana Negara in 2020.
"But they (Harapan MPs) are cowards. They can only make noise here in the Dewan Rakyat. They didn't dare to speak up (against Mahathir)," he added.
‘Brave’ of Azeez
The Baling MP's statement received objections from Dzulkefly Ahmad (Harapan-Kuala Selangor) and Maria Chin (Harapan-Petaling Jaya). They requested to interject but were not allowed by Azeez.
However, minutes later, Saifuddin Nasution Ismail (Harapan-Kulim Bandar Baharu) during his turn to debate the bill took the opportunity to get back at Azeez.
In his speech, Saifuddin made sarcastic remarks about Azeez's "bravery" in speaking up during the 1MDB scandal, which led to the collapse of the BN government in 2018.
"Before I start, I am very interested in the argument raised by my friend Baling about being brave to speak up.
"Because of Baling's bravery to speak up, we have seen the impact of the 1MDB corruption scandal that led to the rakyat rejecting BN.
"BN ruled for 60 years, but it was finally pushed out in May 2018.
"Speaker, what was the elephant in the room at that time? What caused the country's image to be smeared if not for the 1MDB scandal?
"If Baling had the bravery and sincerity to speak up against Pekan (former premier Najib Abdul Razak) at that point of time, I believe BN would have continued to be the government," Saifuddin said. - Mkini
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