Ahmad Maslan escapes censure

KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan (pix) escaped facing the Parliamentary Rights and Privileges Committee with the excuse that he had "no intention" to mislead the Dewan Rakyat with his statements on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).
Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia decided not to refer Ahmad to the committee as the deputy minister did not intend to mislead the Dewan and had "corrected" his statements outside the Dewan, as reported by the media.
Ahmad came under fire after making contradicting statements pertaining to a government Letter of Support and its contents issued to 1MDB earlier this month, which led Rafizi Ramli (PKR-Pandan) to file a motion to refer him to the Rights and Privileges Committee under Standing Order 36(12) for misleading and insulting the Dewan.
"This is a serious matter. Standing Order 36(12) is serious because it questions the integrity of a parliamentarian.
"To refer a parliamentarian to the Rights and Privileges Committee, there are three important criteria – the statements and facts are false, no effort was made to correct the error and there is clear intention to mislead the Dewan," Pandikar said.
He made the decision after scrutinising the bundles of documents submitted by Rafizi and Ahmad to explain their stands respectively.
In an unusual practice, Pandikar asked Rafizi to present the motion in the Dewan and state his reasons with evidence for his motion, after which he asked Ahmad to explain himself for the statements he made.
Rafizi had urged Pandikar to deliberate on whether the Letter of Support issued to the 1MDB bond holder was the same Letter of Support, which was read out by Tony Pua (DAP-Petaling Jaya Utara).
He also said the speaker should also deliberate whether Ahmad was well aware of the said letter and its contents.
Rafizi stressed that the whole debate on Nov 6 between Pua and Ahmad was specifically on that particular Letter of Support and not any other letters and despite that the minister had denied the existence of the letter in the Dewan.
"Ahmad had repeated that there is 'no letter whatsoever' and specifically mentioned the 'letter of support' saying that 'it does not exist'," he said.
Ahmad in his defence said he had "missed out six words in his statement" which led to the misunderstanding.
He explained that he meant to say that there is no "other guarantee" letter and that the letter of support, "which gives other guarantees" does not exist.
"I admit my error in missing out said six words which has caused the misunderstanding. I did not have any intention to mislead the Dewan." Ahmad told the Dewan.
Opposition MPs expressed satisfaction in the way Pandikar handled the motion to refer Ahmad to the RIghts and Privileges Committee.
Although Pandikar decided not to refer Ahmad to the committee despite committing the factual error in his statements, Rafizi said overall the opposition MPs are satisfied with what had happened.
What has happened was unprecedented, and he had to apologise and had to correct the Hansard. This is a milestone for us," he told a press conference in the Parliament lobby.