Editor’s note: As ex-premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah has given Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin until 12 noon today (Oct 4) to respond to his client’s appeal to attend Parliament after the Prisons Department having rejected the Pekan MP’s request on grounds of “security”, veteran lawmaker and MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim kit Siang has offered his two cents worth as to why the authorities should not kowtow to the request of the incarcerated MP.
IF ex-premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak is allowed to attend Parliament while in prison, the Home Ministry will have to explain why it barred 11 DAP MPs from attending Parliament when detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) during Operasi Lalang in 1987.
At first, 11 DAP MPs were arrested under the Internal Security Act (ISA) during Operasi Lalang but five DAP MPs were formally detained after the 60-day custodial detention. They were Lim Kit Siang, (the late) Karpal Singh, (the late) P. Patto, Tan Seng Giaw and Lim Guan Eng.
The 11 DAP MPs who were initially detained in October 1987 were not able to continue to attend the 1987 Budget meeting of the Parliament, while the five DAP MPs who were formally detained after the 60-day custodial detention in the Kamunting Detention Centre missed two to five Parliamentary meetings.
Guan Eng and I missed five parliamentary meetings from October 27, 1987 to June 19, 1989 as we were only released in April 1989.
Furthermore, when Guan Eng was imprisoned for a year under the Sedition Act in 1998, he was not allowed to attend Parliament.
Why then the demand for special consideration for Najib who is in prison for corruption charges? – Oct 4, 2022
DAP supremo and veteran lawmaker Lim Kit Siang is the MP for Iskandar Puteri.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
