MPs FONG & CHONG SUSPENDED FROM PARLIAMENT TODAY

(Malaysiakini)DAP parliamentarians Fong Po Kuan (Batu Gajah) and Chong Chieng Jen (Bandar Kuching) were suspended from the Dewan Rakyat for the rest of the day for disobeying Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia.

MCPX

At a press conference later, Fong said she was suspended because she questioned Pandikar on why she was not allowed to speak.

"The only reason the speaker gave me for disallowing me from speaking was because he didn't see me. This reply is not good enough to disallow a MP from speaking.

"I then questioned what was the yardstick used by the speaker to decide on which MP gets to debate first," she added.

Fong said she waited since yesterday to ask what happened to the RM2.4 million spent in purchasing the indelible ink which was not used during the March general election.

The last thing she heard on the issue is that a certain party has expressed interest to purchase the ink from the Election Commission.

"I have tried my best to get the speaker to allow me to raise these matters but time and time again I was not allowed to do so," she lamented.

Double standards

Chong - who came to Fong's defence when Pandikar slapped her with the suspension - was also barred from the rest of the proceedings without warning or given a reason.

"I felt that it was unnecessary for the speaker to suspend Fong and I do not believe it is wrong to query the decision of the speaker if it is an unjust one," the Bandar Kuching MP told the same press conference.

He said the decision of the speaker was unjust if compared to an incident yesterday where a Barisan Nasional MP had used a highly offensive word against an opposition MP.

Yesterday, Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (BN-Pasir Salak) during a heated exchange with M Kulasegaran (DAP-Ipoh Barat) had called the latter a "bloody bastard."

The Pasir Salak MP however escaped punishment when he was asked to retract his statement by deputy speaker Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar which the former did.

Chong believes that the deputy speaker would have acted differently if an opposition MP had uttered those words.

"He (Tajuddin) was not even given a warning and we are sent out for making (valid) queries to the speaker," he said.

This morning, Karpal Singh (DAP-Batu Gelugor) urged the speaker to take stern action against Tajuddin.

He said the BN politician should not be let off the hook simply because the he had retracted his statement.

"Pasir Salak should be made to apologise or be referred to the House privileges committee," said Karpal at the conclusion of the question-and-answer session.