BERSATU’S Machang MP Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal has been slapped with a six-month suspension from the Dewan Rakyat effective today (July 18).
The Bersatu Youth chief was suspended after a bloc vote in which 110 MPs voted in favour of the motion and 63 voted against it. Three MPs abstained while 46 were absent.
The decision came after Wan Fayhsal had cited an anonymous letter during parliamentary debates on July 1 that purportedly maligns civil servants using unverified information.
Wan Fayhsal had quoted a letter that named an officer in the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) as the purported “mastermind” of the plan to privatise Malaysia Airport Holdings Bhd, alongside the individual’s alleged ill-treatment of colleagues.
The motion to suspend Wan Fayhsal was tabled by Law and Institutional Reform Minister Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.
“Machang raised a poison pen letter whose author and contents are unverified,” she told the Dewan Rakyat when tabling the motion.
“This has tarnished the reputation of the alleged individual land also officers from government agencies through such baseless allegations.”
According to Azalina, Wan Fayhsal should have raised the matter through official channels, adding that the government does not have an issue if official documents were referred.
“But don’t use poison pen letters as it will open the floodgates for all MPs to reference poison pen letters,” she remarked, adding that it was crucial to debate with facts.
“Now with SMS and artificial intelligence, we don’t know what is real and what is not.
“If Machang apologised for his actions, there is no issue as he qualified his statement. But he sat and let the thing go viral as if Parliament endorsed what Machang said.
“Who is defending government officers outside? Just because we are MPs, don’t act like we are above the law.”
The suspension means that the Perikatan Nasional (PN) lawmaker will not only miss Dewan Rakyat proceedings but also be unable to attend Parliamentary Special Select Committee meetings. – July 18, 2024
