In what can be interpreted as an open revolt, Barisan Nasional (BN) backbenchers today said they wanted Shahrir Abdul Samad to continue leading them and demanded for discretionary powers on voting for opposition motions.

Backbenchers Club (BBC) secretary Rosli Mat Hassan (BN-Dungun) told a press conference at the Parliament House that the rule which forbade government parliamentarians from supporting opposition motions must not be cast in stone.

"The unwritten rule that presently made it mandatory for BN MPs to oppose any opposition motion regardless of merit ran counter to basic parliamentary practice and infringed on the duties of MPs," he read out a statement on behalf of his peers.

However, he said the backbenchers recognised that the party whip could compel MPs to vote along party lines on issues of serious importance as practiced in the British House of Commons.

"It is the duty of the whip to tell us on which occasion to follow the party line. But in the absence of any direction from the whip, the general rule is that MPs were to vote according to their conscience to serve their constituency and country," he added.

'It's our right'

As for Shahrir, the backbenchers said they do not accept his resignation and would propose for his re-election at a special meeting tomorrow.

They also reaffirmed their support for Shahrir in his commitment to integrity and good conscience.

The Johor Baru MP quit as BBC head last week when he failed to get other backbenchers - the same people who are now backing him - to support a motion tabled by the opposition.

His resignation was later accepted by Deputy Prime Minister and BN whip Najib Abdul Razak on the ground that Shahrir had broke ranks.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz had also said it was a rule that government MPs do not support opposition motions. This was confirmed by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

However, the backbenchers today said it was their right to decide on who led them and in an obvious snub to the deputy premier, added that it was irrelevant if others accepted the BBC head's resignation.

"Shahrir's resignation was never accepted by the members of BBC. It can accepted by someone else, but that's irrelevant.

"He was elected by us (backbenchers) and he is answerable to us," Zaid Ibrahim (BN-Kota Baru) told the same press conference.

He also ruled out a question on whether this statement amounted to a challenge against Najib.

"There is no challenge, we follow the parliamentary practice. We want a powerful and first-world parliament that the PM wants this from us, so we have to follow first-world parliamentary practices too," he said.

The whip's limits

Elaborating, Zaid, a lawyer by training, said it was not wrong for Shahrir to state his support or otherwise on the opposition motion since there was no specific written instructions from the whip.

Thus MPs were allowed to vote based on their conscience and principle, he added.

He said the power of the whip was limited to three areas under parliamentary democracy - to ensure that MPs were knowledgeable about motions or matters in the House, to advise the premier, and to impose the whip when the need arose.

"We can also support the opposition. We don't want our MPs to oppose for the sake of opposing, it must be based on merits... He (Najib) cannot instruct us beyond the (three) situations," he added.

Shahrir, who was also present at the press conference, declined to provide a definitive answer on whether he would accept the re-election.

"I stated that I resigned and it was accepted. But my (BBC) colleagues said I shouldn't have submitted the resignation letter to the whip because it is not the whip who appointed me, they have their point also," he said.

Everybody was wrong

He also said that everybody got it wrong, starting from Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang who had tabled the motion in dispute.

According to him, Lim had invoked the wrong standing order when he moved the motion.

"Everybody was wrong - the opposition leader was wrong, the speaker was wrong, I was also wrong in supporting or (being) against the motion," he said, adding that his resignation was therefore made on the wrong basis.

Lim had sought to refer a media report that claimed a MP had allegedly asked the Customs and Excise department to 'close one eye' regarding a case involving the import of illegal sawn timber in Malacca to the Parliamentary Privileges Committee.

However, the BBC argued today that the privilege motion under Standing Order 26 (1)(p) only pertained to parliamentary privileges confined to proceedings in the House.

The issue in the news report had occurred outside the House.

The MP in the report was later identified as Mohd Said Yusof (BN-Jasin), who admitted that he had asked the authorities to 'close one eye' but argued that he was not abusing his power.

Meanwhile, Lim today failed in his attempt to move a second privilege motion to refer the Jasin MP to the privileges committee for investigation.

Speaker Ramli Ngah Talib said the motion must be moved at the time when the matter occurred or at the first available opportunity.