VIDEO | 1.45 min

PARLIAMENT Dewan Rakyat speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia has rejected motions from both BN and Pakatan Rakyat parliamentarians to debate the haze crisis urgently in the lower house.

NONEDAP’s Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching (right) and MCA's Ayer Hitam MP Wee Ka Siong both had similar motions rejected by the speaker, who had asked them to raise the issue while debating the Royal Address instead.

“The speaker told me that we shouldn’t debate the haze issue in Malaysia because the problem comes from Indonesia,” Teo said during a press conference outside of the Dewan Rakyat today.

Both the motions were raised under Standing Order 18 (1), which allows for an emergency debate motion if the matter is of urgency and public importance.

“The speaker agreed that this was a definite, urgent matter of public importance. But he rejected it on the grounds that the haze came from Indonesia,” Teo said.

She also questioned the wisdom of rejecting her and Wee’s motions while at the same time approving a motion tabled last year by then-minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz to condemn Israel’s attacks on Palestine.

“That issue is even more remote than this (haze from Indonesia),” she said.

NONEShe said that it might take more than a week before she can raise the matter while debating the Royal Address.

“Our government is very slow in responding to the haze crisis,” she said.

Wee (left), however, refused to disclose whether he was satisfied with his motion being rejected, merely saying that he “respected” the speaker’s decision.

MCA backbenchers’ club chairperson Liow Tiong Lai said that the MCA parliamentarians are fully supportive of Wee’s emergency motion.

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