Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Seri Abdul Rahman Dahlan should retract the word “lie” against me in this coming Monday’s Parliamentary sitting, and if he is an honourable parliamentarian should also apologise to me for causing me to be ejected from Parliament for a day. Rasah MP Teo Kok Seong was also ejected out of Parliament together with me.
I wish to thank the Speaker for upholding parliamentary practice and customs. I feel vindicated by the ruling made by Parliament Dewan Rakyat speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia today that the word “bohong” (lie) in the House was unparliamentary. Tan Sri Pandikar even said,
“If I were in the House yesterday, I would have instructed the honourable minister to retract the word ‘lie’ which he had uttered”.
Clearly I was right when I fought to uphold the sanctity of the Standing Orders that the word “lie” was unparliamentary should be withdrawn by Abdul Rahman. Abdul Rahman had unreasonably refused to do so, which led to 90 minutes of mayhem wasted in Parliament, and me being ejected for the house for doing the right thing whilst Abdul Rahman escaped unpunished for his wrongdoing.
Abdul Rahman had said in Parliament on 16.3.2016, that I lied in relation to my speech outside Parliament that the maximum price for affordable housing is fixed by the Federal Government, not the state government. The state government was upset that we were being criticised by BN for fixing the maximum price of affordable housing at RM400,000, when we are only following federal government guidelines.
The Prime Minister had announced the new ceiling of RM400,000 in the 2012, 2013 and 2014 Budgets. Even PR1MA had specified the range of affordable housing they are building is up to a maximum price of RM400,000. By stating that I lied, is Abdul Rahman also saying that the Prime Minister is lying?
My ejection from Parliament had denied me the opportunity to face and reply to his lies against me on the Taman Manggis land. Worse Abdul Rahman had claimed that I wanted to be ejected from Parliament to avoid answering him, even though I had cut short my official trip to China to come back and face him.
Clearly, Abdul Rahman was wrong and his stubborn refusal to admit his mistake showed that even though he is a Minister, he is not an honourable parliamentarian, but only a rabble-rouser. The question is will Abdul Rahman be a big enough man to eat humble pie by admitting his mistake and do the right thing by retracting the word “lie” willingly on Monday?