Datuk Azalina Othman Said would have committed hara-kiri or seppuku in Parliament today if she upholds the bushido code of honour above life.
This is because the Order Paper in the last sitting of Parliament today – ending the 25-day six-week parliamentary budget meeting – proves that Azalina had been caught out committing the unparliamentary and dishonourable act of telling outright lies as Minister responsible for Parliamentary Affairs.
On the very first day of the current meeting of Parliament on Oct. 19, Azalina evaded the questions by DAP Members of Parliament, Lim Guan Eng (Bagan) and Lim Lip Eng (Segambut), and said in written reply that the government would answer questions about the RM2.6 billion “donation” received by Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and other related questions during the current meeting of Parliament.
However, Azalina said the exact date for this would be determined later.
Guan Eng had asked Najib on the source of the RM2.6 billion donation, how was it spent and how much balance is left; who the money was spent on, if taxes were paid and if there was a formal declaration.
Lip Eng’s question with regard to the donation and the missing US$1 billion payment to International Petroleum Investment Co. (IPIC) also received the same reply.
Then, in an act of great “benevolence” and “magnanimity”, Azalina told the media on Nov. 5 that the Prime Minister or a Minister will explain on the last day of the parliamentary meeting on Dec. 3 on the controversial RM2.6 billion donation that went into Najib’s personal bank accounts.
She told the media assembled before her:
“I will entertain you by telling you we will answer at the end of session on Dec 3” during the question-and-answer time on the last day of the parliamentary meeting, though she refused to confirm if Najib would be answering the issue himself.
She said:
“Whether the prime minister will answer or anyone in the Prime Minister’s Department, it is still the prerogative of the prime minister.”
What Azalina should realize is that neither the Prime Minister nor any Minister has the prerogative to tell lies in Parliament.
Today is Dec. 3, the last day of the 25-day parliamentary budget meeting and Azalina has been caught red-handed telling lies in Parliament when promising MPs that all the questions about Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” scandal would be answered in one-go today.
There are two questions today related to Najib’s twin mega scandals – the RM2.6 billion “donation” and the RM50 billion 1MBD scandals – but they will not be answered at all as they are at the bottom of the question queue, one occupying No. 43 and the other No. 49, the last question on today’s Question Time.
Question No. 43 is by the DAP MP for Raub, Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri bin Abdul Aziz who asked the Minister for Finance to state: (a) senarai nilai bon-bon yang telah diterbitkan oleh 1MDB secara kronologi; dan (b) berapakah nilai hutang yang ditanggung oleh 1MDB sebenarnya dengan nilai ringgit semasa.
Question No. 49, the last on the today’s list, is by the PKR MP for Lembah Pantai who asked the Prime Minister “menyatakan apakah yang berlaku kepada US$650 juta yang didakwa dipindahkan ke sebuah akaun kawalan Tanore Finance Corporation, Bank Falcon di Singapura yang akhirnya ditutup menurut laporan Sarawak Report, dan mengapakah wang tersebut dipindahkan ke akaun syarikat sekiranya wang itu merupakan wang derma”.
There are no other question in today’s Question Time apart from these two questions which are related to Najib’s RM2.6 billion “donation” or RM50 billion 1MDB twin mega scandals to allow either the Prime Minister or any other Minister to give full and satisfactory accountability for Najib’s role in these two scandals, which have made Malaysia the object of scorn, mockery and ridicule in international circles – as at least seven foreign countries have launched independent investigations into these twin mega scandals whether on corruption or other aspects of financial irregularities and improprieties.
There are some 90 questions related to Najib’s twin mega scandals – the RM2.6 billion “donation” and RM50 billion 1MDB – submitted mostly by Pakatan Harapan Members of Parliament for the 25-day parliamentary budget meeting, but they were all shunted aside by Azalina on the ground that they would all be answered in “one go” on the last day of the budget meeting today.
This is the height of parliamentary contempt and disrespect for Parliament by the Minister who should upholding parliamentary honour, dignity and ethics instead of undermining and destroying them.
Nobody expects Azalina to uphold the Bushido code of honour above life and commit hara-kiri or ceremonial disembowelment in Parliament to redeem shame for the dishonour to Parliament, but where is she going to hide her face?
Would she move a motion to refer herself to the Committee of Privileges to ascertain as to whether she had committed a gross breach of parliamentary privilege and what penalities that is commensurate that should be meted out to her?
From today’s Order Paper, it is clear that Azalina is not only completely without a sense of contrition or remorse for the dishonour she had done to Parliament, she want to commit another parliamentary outrage by turning Parliament into a “kangaroo court” to convict the PKR Vice Chairman and MP for Lembah Pantai Nurul Izzah Anwar of breach of parliamentary privilege over the Nurul-Jacel photograph episode, and referring Nurul to the Committee of Privilege for it to determine the penalties to be meted out to Nurul!
Azalina is the worst Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department entrusted with the specific task of parliamentary affairs since such a portfolio was specifically assigned to a Minister – which was introduced by the fifth Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in 2004.
The first two Ministers assigned specifically to the portfolio of parliamentary affairs , Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz from 2004 to 2013 and Datuk Shahidan Kassim 2013-2015 would not have committed the parliamentary faux pax which Azalina had been guilty of – the blatant cover-up of Najib’s twin mega scandals in disregard of parliamentary tradition, conventions and practices and the outrageous parliamentary offensive against Nurul.
The events of the 25-day parliamentary budget meeting point to one disturbing conclusion, that Azalina’s appointment as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, just like the appointment of “cari makan” MP for Rompin, Datuk Hasan Arifin as Chairman of Public Accounts Committee (PAC), was made solely on one criteria s – how loyal, effective even if blatant they are prepared to act to “cover up” any expose of Najib’s twin mega scandals in Parliament.
There is no sense of urgency, for instance, in the PAC chaired by Hasan to complete the long-delayed PAC investigations into the 1MDB scandal in the shortest possible time.
In fact, the PAC chaired by Hasan has not called key operatives of 1MDB which had not been summoned by the previous Chairman, Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed – like all the former 1MDB CEOs as well as the Chairmen and Board members of 1MDB and even more important the Chairmen and Members of the 1MDB Advisory Board.
Azalina and Hasan must prove that their loyalty is not to one person, be he the Prime Minister, or one party, be it UMNO, but to the country Malaysia as their oath of office as MP and Minister commit them “to bear true faith and allegiance to Malaysia” and to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution” and not just to be loyal to Najib, UMNO or Barisan Nasional!