KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 — Gelang Patah MP Lim Kit Siang was today suspended for six months from Parliament for insulting Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia.
During his speech before being booted from the House, Lim remained defiant, saying his suspension should be used as reason for Malaysians to vote out the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.
“I respect the Speaker fully, I never said he deliberately abused his powers and deliberately sabotaged… I didn’t accuse him of being a dictator… let my suspension become a lesson to the people to change and BN Baru falls!”
On Tuesday, Pandikar ordered Lim to apologise or retract his remarks questioning credibility following the suspension of the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) probe into state investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Pandikar also ordered the DAP parliamentary leader to explain himself at the next opportune time, as the latter was not in the Dewan Rakyat at the time.
Lim, however, did not apologise or retract his remarks, and went on today to add that even the public would agree that Pandikar had abused his powers by suspending the PAC’s probe on 1MDB.
“I believe if you ask the public if the Speaker’s decision to stop PAC is an abuse of power, people will agree… if we have a referendum (to ask) if this is sabotage to 1MDB they will say yes!” the veteran DAP lawmaker thundered to the House.
This irked BN MPs and during a bloc vote later, 107 agreed to suspend Lim while 77 disagreed.
With his suspension in effect, Lim said; “Bye bye everyone,” and smiled and waved at his fellow MPs as he was escorted out of the Dewan Rakyat. Some BN lawmakers were seen returning the gesture.
Earlier, before he was booted out, Lim criticised the backbenchers for condemning him without even reading the Dewan Rakyat hansard to determine if he had made the contentious remarks.
“Read the hansard... did I make the statement or are you utterly ignorant? Is the Malaysian education system so bad that the (BN) MPs don’t understand this? Then the education minister should be fired!” he told the House.
Lim added that his suspension makes him the latest “victim” of the 1MDB fiasco that saw the removal of Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and several other leaders critical of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak from the federal Cabinet.
“I am the latest victim of this one disease that is plaguing the country and it’s the 1MDB monster. I’m only the latest casualty after the former DPM, Rural and Regional Development Minister, Gani Patail and the special taskforce that’s gone missing,” Lim said.
On Monday, Lim reportedly accused Pandikar of exceeding his authority when he ordered the suspension of PAC’s 1MDB probe until a new chairman was appointed.
The veteran MP, who came in at noon yesterday prior to the Speaker’s order to retract the notice, however, denied having used the world “deliberately” or that he had intended to berate the Speaker.
On August 3, Parliament officially halted all PAC hearings on 1MDB after its then-chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed was appointed deputy home minister during a Cabinet reshuffle in July.
