'Kidnapped' Seputeh MP speaks up

DAP parliamentarian Teresa Kok expressed disappointment over her recent arrest under the Internal Security Act (ISA) but the deputy home minister shot down her question on technical grounds. This, among snippets from today’s proceedings.

Kok: ‘ I was kidnapped too’

Teresa Kok (DAP-Seputeh), who was recently detained for seven days under the ISA, expressed dissatisfaction with the police in a supplementary question.

Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung informed the House about the government’s steps to tackle the issue of missing children who are suspected to have been kidnapped.

Kok then shifted the focus to cases of MPs ‘kidnapped’ by the police.

"When I was arrested by the police under the ISA, I was not even allowed to contact my parents and my lawyer,” she said.

“All they (the police) said was, ‘they can find out about it in the newspaper tomorrow’...Isn’t this called kidnap as well?”

Chor shot down the question, saying she should have submitted a specific question on this instead of raising it under the topic of kidnapped children.

“We can then answer it in a suitable manner since she is no longer a child, is she?” asked Chor.

Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar was not in the hall when Kok raised the issue of her detention.

However, Kok wrote about her 'encounter' with Syed Hamid during the lunch break in her blog, 'Sassy MP'.

‘No postal votes in bags’ found in Sabah

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz brushed aside the notion that the discovery of bags in Sungai Tebobon, Menggatal, in Sabah is proof of ‘mismanagement’ of the March 8 general election.

"This was actually due to Election Commission (EC) staff failing to return unused election material to their Sabah office in the 1999 general election. No postal votes were found in the bags,” he told the House.

Nazri was responding to Edmund Chong Ket Wah (BN-Batu Sapi), who asked whether police action to destroy the bags could affect the country’s image in terms of ability to conduct a free and fair election.

“After a thorough check, it was found that (the bags only contained) plastic wrappers used during the 1999 general election. The police are now conducting a forensic investigation to detect the age of the bags.

“The bags will be destroyed by the police only after the outcome of the investigation has been communicated to the EC... this incident will not affect the country’s image unless it is politicised.”

Gov’t mum on Maybank deal

Lim Guan Eng (DAP-Bagan) queried Maybank’s move to acquire a controlling stake in financially-struggling Indonesian bank at double the market price of its shares.

Directing the question to Finance Minister II Nor Mohamed Yakcop (right), Lim claimed that Maybank would face a RM4 billion loss.

(Maybank announced on Oct 1 that it has acquired 56 percent of bank Internasional Indonesia, paying a discounted price of RM4.26 billion.)

The minister, however, dismissed the point as “not relevant” as the House was discussing the country’s economic situation at that point.

Lim refused to back down, arguing that the money belongs to the people and that it should not be mismanaged by the government.

However, speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia intervened to give Puad Zarkashi (BN-Batu Pahat) the opportunity to ask another supplementary question.

Watch 2-min video of Teresa in Parliament