KUALA LUMPUR: Former premier Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak will be referred to the Parliament Rights and Privileges Committee for violating an embargo on the Felda White Paper.
The decision was made after a bloc vote in the Dewan Rakyat, which saw 86 lawmakers supporting and 33 rejecting.
This follows a motion by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong, and over two hours of debate between lawmakers from both benches.
Initially, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof had put the motion up for a simple voice vote, which favoured the government. The opposition however sought for bloc voting, which also did go in their favour.
When winding up the motion today, Liew said it was pertinent that Najib be referred to the committee as this would allow the Pekan MP to defend and explain himself.
Meanwhile, Deputy Dewan Rakyat Speaker Nga Kor Ming has denied claims that the Felda White Paper was uploaded to the Parliament website a day before it was tabled.
He said Parliament staff had confirmed that the white paper was only uploaded after Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali tabled it in the Dewan Rakyat today.
“The Felda White Paper was only uploaded yesterday afternoon. The claims of opposition members that Parliament staff uploaded it (early) and breached the embargo are not true,” he said.
The document was supposed to have been embargoed until 11.30am yesterday.
Nga said Parliament staff had only updated the website to reflect the agenda for tabling the white paper, adding that no content was uploaded before Azmin tabled the document.
