Thursday 28 Mar 2024
By
main news image

KUALA LUMPUR: Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamad has ticked off Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah for suggesting that DAP lawmaker Tony Pua quit the bi-partisan panel, telling the Umno lawyer not to poke his nose into PAC’s business.

Malaysiakini reported Nur Jazlan as saying that Shafee has no right to tell Pua, a well-known critic of 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), to step down from the panel.

“He doesn’t have the right to tell off PAC members who are members of the legislature, the third branch of the government and elected by the people,” he was quoted as saying by the news portal.

In coming to Pua’s defence, Nur Jazlan said the DAP’s Petaling Jaya Utara (PJU) federal lawmaker had never used PAC’s information on troubled 1MDB in his statements.

Instead, Pua had shone the spotlight on important matters related to the debt-laden state investment vehicle.

“I personally think he has helped to highlight the issue on 1MDB which the majority of Malaysians today believe the PAC will dismiss in favour of the government. [But] we are working well as a team. Pua performs a dual role as a MP for PJU and a PAC member. And as far as I am concerned, he has not used any information obtained from PAC hearings on 1MDB in his statements.

“Whatever information he uses in his statements are obtained from parliamentary answers and other sources,” Nur Jazlan told Malaysiakini.

Earlier yesterday, Berita Harian reported Shafee as suggesting that Pua quit PAC to ensure the current probe into 1MDB can be conducted in a fair and transparent manner.

The Bahasa Malaysia daily quoted Shafee as airing his personal view by suggesting that Pua and PAC members, who are 1MDB’s most strident critics, are more suited as witnesses in the inquiry instead. However, Nur Jazlan reminded Shafee that PAC is not a court of law. “The PAC is not a court of law created by statute but it is a body that represents the voice of the country.

“Our job is to gather information, get testimonies from witnesses, analyse and [distinguish] fact from fiction and come out with [an accurate] report. 

“[Most Malaysians [perceive] that there is something wrong with 1MDB because the issue has been left to fester in the public domain for too long. PAC can help clear the negative perception by writing a report that is based on the facts of the case.”  — The Malaysian Insider

 

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on June 26, 2015.

      Print
      Text Size
      Share