Radzi ejected, PN MPs stage walkout

PARLIAMENT | Perikatan Nasional lawmakers staged a walkout from the Dewan Rakyat following a protracted argument when Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was delivering his winding-up speech on the 12th Malaysian Plan mid-term review.

Chaos erupted when Anwar took a swipe at Radzi Jidin (PN-Putrajaya) for laughing when he was explaining the issue of the discharge not amounting to an acquittal (DNAA) granted to Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

“Larut (opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin) asked what I discussed (with the attorney-general). When the attorney-general made the decision, I asked him (about it), yes.

“I did not discuss his decision, I asked him for justification, for clarification.

“You can laugh but you are laughing, Putrajaya, because you did that. During (PN) administration you did that,” he said.

Even before the prime minister could elaborate, an infuriated Radzi stood up and demanded that Anwar retract his statement.

“Retract! Retract! This is a malicious accusation, speaker, he is saying I committed a wrongdoing,” he said.

This led to a shouting match which lasted more than 20 minutes as PN lawmakers demanded Anwar to withdraw his remark while Pakatan Harapan MPs defended him.

At this point, Dewan Rakyat speaker Johari Abdul told Radzi to sit down in order for the prime minister to explain his remark.

When Radzi insisted that Anwar retract his remark, he was given the marching orders.

Hamzah said all PN lawmakers would also leave the Dewan Rakyat if the speaker maintained the decision to eject Radzi.

‘Radzi aware of what happened’

After the opposition MPs left, Anwar kept alluding that Radzi was aware of what happened during the time of PN’s administration.

“What I said is true, Putrajaya (Radzi) knows (what happened), he was part of the old administration and the ‘old’ AG (Idrus Harun who was appointed during PN’s reign).

“That is why he (Radzi) cannot bear to hear my explanation. This is because they are familiar with the system and they think I am doing the same,” he added.

Anwar later explained that there were also many cases which were dropped after prima facie was established during the previous administrations yet PN did not make any noise.

“So why is it that they are only targeting the deputy prime minister (Zahid)?”

He stressed that it was the same AG who made the decisions in all these cases and he did not interfere.

Previously, Anwar had said that it was Idrus’ decision to withdraw the 47 charges against Zahid and wanted to do so before he retired on Sept 6.

‘Dark days for Malaysia’

During a press conference at the Parliament lobby, Hamzah explained that all PN MPs walked out as a sign of protest to Johari.

"This was an unfair occurrence for Putrajaya (Radzi). Tambun (Anwar) had accused Putrajaya of something terrible, and Putrajaya merely stood up to tell him to retract it.

"Even I asked Tambun to retract it but instead he just spun Putrajaya's statement... The speaker's decision for an opposition MP is unfair," he said.

Radzi, who also spoke at the press conference, claimed that today was a dark day for Malaysia as opposition MPs are facing injustices.

"It was a straightforward thing of just retracting the matter, why did they want to defend a wrong thing so badly?" he said.

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