KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22 — The Deputy Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat Datuk Mohd Rashid Hasnon has denied he gave a speech on behalf of Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail at an event earlier today, and threatened to sue its organisers.

The Batu Pahat MP said he had been invited to the launch of the Enhanced Malaysia International Internet Gateway (EM-IIG) High-Speed Broadband project in Shah Alam, in his capacity as deputy chief minister of Penang.

“I was not scheduled to speak, as I was supposed to head back to Parliament after the deputy prime minister spoke, to welcome a visiting delegation by the Speaker of India’s Jammu and Kashmir Azad,” Rashid said in a statement.

He said as soon as the launch began, the organisers informed him that Dr Wan Azizah could not attend for unavoidable reasons, and requested he give the speech instead.

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“I was provided the speech text by the organisers as a reference. However, I categorically deny that I represented the deputy prime minister at the function. Any statement claiming this to be the case is misleading at best.

“I urge the organisers to take immediate action to rectify the situation and at the same time, clear my name from any misunderstandings. Should they fail to clarify their position, I will not hesitate to initiate legal action against them,” Rashid said.

Dr Wan Azizah’s office earlier stated it never approved the text of the speech that was delivered during the project launch, nor had she delegated anyone to read it out.

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It also denied that Dr Wan Azizah had said the government would fully co-operate with the implementation of the project.