KUALA LUMPUR – Pakatan Harapan (PH) members of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Agencies have pressed their chairman to carry on with tomorrow’s proceedings with or without Tan Sri Azam Baki’s attendance.
Kota Melaka MP Khoo Poay Tiong said it is pertinent that the meeting be held even without the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief, to establish the terms of references pertaining to its probe into Azam’s share ownership.
Khoo said this would include finalising details on who else would be summoned by the PSC under the Prime Minister’s Department, with Azam’s brother Datuk Nasir Baki among the names being proposed.
The DAP lawmaker added that under the Standing Orders, the PSC has the power to call in any person to obtain information related to its investigations.
His remark follows Azam’s reasons not to attend tomorrow’s proceedings, which prompted the committee chairman and Kuala Krai MP Abdul Latiff Abdul Rahman to postpone the meeting.
“Who is Azam Baki to say he doesn’t want to come? Can Azam override Parliament now? Why is it that when Azam issued a letter (to Latiff stating his reasons not to attend), we had to postpone our meeting?
“We are Parliament, we are supposed to be higher than anyone else. How can we be listening to him? We should insist that Azam come. By right, this should be the way,” he said in a virtual press conference today.
“This is why we say we have to proceed with our meeting. We want to discuss who will be called in for questioning, including his brother.
“We are also considering summoning Azam’s superior in MACC at the time to determine whether Azam had declared his ownership of shares and to whom, as well as the Securities Commission on how it is conducting its own probe.”
The press conference was also attended by Chan Foong Hin (Kota Kinabalu) and William Leong (Selayang). Datuk Mohd Azis Jamman (Sepanggar) was the only PH committee member absent today.
Khoo said Azam must attend the proceeding when summoned, and can choose to deflect or refuse to answer any question if he chooses to.
He added that if the anti-graft chief remains insistent in not making himself present, the PSC will consider the next course of action to be taken against him.
“Our suggestion is to proceed with tomorrow’s meeting. Let Azam decide whether he wants to come. We can still proceed without him.”
In a notice to the PSC members yesterday, Dewan Rakyat Secretary Nizam Mydin Bacha Mydin had announced that the proceeding surrounding the controversy involving Azam scheduled for tomorrow has been postponed indefinitely, due to “several legal issues”.
The PH members of the PSC on Agencies later issued a statement accusing Azam of acting in contempt of Parliament by disregarding its calls for meetings.
The members also said that Azam had given three reasons for his refusal to attend the meeting – he has an ongoing defamation suit against a reporter, the Securities Commission and MACC complaints committee are initiating probes, and a motion should be passed in Parliament in order to summon him to the PSC.
Khoo also questioned why the decision to postpone the proceeding was made on very short notice, and claimed that Latiff had informed his committee members about Azam’s letter to him five minutes after receiving it, with Nizam Mydin then issuing an official notice of postponement 12 minutes later.
He added that the PH members of the committee expressed their disapproval to Latiff over the postponement, but were ignored. – The Vibes, January 18, 2022
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