KUALA LUMPUR, March 11 ― Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia must publicly explain his reasons for stopping MPs from asking questions orally while the House is in session, opposition lawmaker Lim Kit Siang said today.

The suspended DAP parliamentary leader claimed the number of rejections made this week at the start of the current Parliament sitting that is scheduled to run only until April 7 has set “a new record”.

“Pandikar should make public the full list of oral questions which had been rejected by him for the current five-week Parliament meeting, for scrutiny not only by MPs but the Malaysian public about the rationale and justification for the rejection of these parliamentary oral questions,” Lim said in a statement.

He then added that the Speaker should make public a list of oral questions by MPs from the ruling Barisan Nasional as well as from the opposition that have been rejected since the start of the 14th parliamentary sitting following the May 5, 2013 general elections.

The Gelang Patah MP who has to sit out of proceedings in the lower House for six month pointed to “random reports” on the rejection of questions by MPs concerning the prime minister’s link to funds transfers and state-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad.