KUALA LUMPUR – Jelutong MP RSN Rayer is dumbfounded by Deputy Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said’s decision to eject him from the Dewan Rakyat for defending a government officer, here today.
The DAP lawmaker said it also baffled him that Azalina chose not to reprimand Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing (GPS-Bintulu) for his statement accusing Health director-general Tan Sri Noor Hisham Abdullah of being selfish.
“I am disappointed and surprised that Azalina, despite hearing Bintulu repeating his accusation several times, chose not to ask him to retract his statement or apologise.
“I am just perplexed why I was instead told to leave the Dewan. I was just defending the Health director-general, and yet I was asked to leave,” he told a press conference in Parliament today.
Earlier in the Dewan, pandemonium broke out after Tiong said Noor Hisham was afraid of dying, citing his “refusal to go to the ground” to fight Covid-19 alongside frontliners.
He had also accused the director-general of only seeking publicity by giving press conferences, leading Rayer and several other opposition MPs to hit back at Tiong.
Rayer said it also came as a surprise that a Government MP had resorted to insulting a civil servant, while maintaining his call for Tiong to apologise to Noor Hisham.
Sim Tze Tzin (PH-Bayan Baru) said he hopes Noor Hisham would not be discouraged and disheartened by Tiong’s remarks.
“What Bintulu has said is unreasonable. As an MP, he needs to understand the process in administering the country and the SOPs that have to be followed, not to belittle civil servants.
“I hope he apologises, not only to the director-general, but to the health fraternity who have been sacrificing for us Malaysians,” he said. – The Vibes, November 11, 2020
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