Friday 29 Mar 2024
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(June 10): Two DAP lawmakers were ejected from the Dewan Rakyat today for refusing to heed the advice of the speaker not to disrupt the winding-up speech by Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

Rasah MP Teo Kok Seong was the first to get the boot after he defied Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia's call for him to sit and allow Muhyiddin to go on.

However, the DAP parliamentarian continued to ask Muhyiddin to answer his question on the whereabouts of the free netbooks promised to teachers a year ago.

After Teo was ejected, Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng stood up and demanded to know when his DAP colleague would be allowed to return, despite Pandikar asking him to sit.

But Lim insisted the speaker answer him and was also given the boot.

Outside the House later, the duo said it seemed as if Pandikar was having a bad day.

"This is a historical day for me. If you saw me (in the Dewan), I was not being rude but the speaker might have been emotional today. If he is upset with the higher-ups, he shouldn't involve me. I was just doing my duty," Teo said.

The Rasah MP said he had only been trying to obtain an explanation from Muhyiddin, who is also the deputy prime minister, on the missing 1Malaysia netbooks that were promised to teachers by the Education Ministry.

"But I don't understand why the speaker allowed the minister to avoid answering my question about the netbooks.

"I feel this is so unfair. I was not rude. I stood up politely for an explanation as the answer provided by Muhyiddin that the netbooks were given to the schools instead, cannot be accepted," he said.

On Teacher's Day last year, Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek announced that 400,000 units of 1Malaysia netbooks would be given to teachers, including those in Negri Sembilan, in appreciation for their contribution to the nation.

However, in a written reply to Nurul Izzah Anwar (Lembah Pantai-PKR), Ahmad Shabery said the RM400 million was spent for the 400,000 units of 1Malaysia netbooks to be given to teachers in conjunction with the 2014 Teacher's Day.

Teo previously said that 48 suppliers had been appointed by the ministry to distribute the netbooks.

“However it’s already one year, I received information from many teachers, not only from Negri Sembilan but also from Selangor, that they still did not get the promised netbooks,” he said last month. – The Malaysian Insider

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