KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 — The government has retracted its motion to suspend Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) Tasek Gelugor MP Datuk Wan Saiful Wan Jan for six months.
This followed Wan Saiful’s explanation and retraction of his debate speech after he was given an opportunity by Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul to clarify and retract contents of his speech delivered last week when debating the King’s speech in the House.
“Before I call on the Minister of Rural and Regional Development Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to read out the motion, I would like to call on Tasek Gelugor to give him an opportunity to state his desire so that, to me, it is better for the country.
“I would like to give Tasek Gelugor a last chance to state what he initially wanted to say as discussed,” Johari told Parliament today.
During his turn to debate on February 28, Wan Saiful admitted that he did utter a paragraph which said, “Corrupt meant abuse of power”.
“After which, there was some disturbance. But I carried on, and I said, ‘Ampun Tuanku, that person who abuses his power, is granted an audience with Your Majesty, every week before the Cabinet meeting — that, I was directing it to Tambun (Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim).
“I did repeat that again on February 29, when Jelutong brought it up. I would like to retract the sentence and my statement, and I would like to apologise for that statement.
“I would like to humbly, because in the motion, if there were mistakes I made and touched on anything relating to the King, I would like to apologise for the statement. Thank you, Speaker; I hope you are able to make a fair deliberation,” Wan Saiful told Parliament during his brief explanation.
Johari then proceeded to accept the Tasek Gelugor MP’s apology and asked Parliament to move on from the incident.
“This means that Tasek Gelugor has apologised to Tambun and has retracted his statement, that’s one.
“Secondly, Tasek Gelugor has also sought to apologise to the King. For that I will accept, minister, I take it as we can resolve this matter since an open apology has been made, I hope minister you can accept this apology as well,” Johari said, while addressing Zahid in Parliament.
Zahid proceeded to retract the motion that was listed as first in the matters of the Order Paper today following Question Time.
“I would like to retract the motion stated as number one in the order of matters for today,” Zahid told Parliament.
Last Wednesday, the Dewan Rakyat Speaker had given a stern warning to all MPs in the Lower House to adhere to his orders or risk being suspended for six months.
He said this after repeatedly asking Wan Saiful to refrain from raising matters that were merely hearsay, but to no avail.
Wan Saiful, prior to Johari’s warning had claimed that he was repeatedly “offered rewards” in exchange for his support for the prime minister.
His claims sparked a ruckus in the Lower House and he was told by the Dewan Rakyat Speaker to refrain from drawing attention to matters that were merely hearsay.
This had also led Johari to warn all MPs of a six-month suspension should they disobey his orders not to bring political squabbles into the Lower House.
