Two MPs from Pakatan Rakyat (PR) claimed they were kicked out of a public briefing on the latest series of the Auditor General’s Report by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Paul Low today.<\/p>\n
Sim Tze Tzin (PKR – Bayan Baru) and Datuk Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah Raja Ahmad (PAS – Kuala Terengganu) said Low had asked them to leave the auditorium at Menara Integriti, just as soon as the programme, which was broadcast live, had started.<\/p>\n
”We arrived, registered and were allowed to go in. But then, an officer from the ministry approached me and told me that since I am an MP, I was not allowed to be there,” Raja Kamarul told reporters at the Parliament lobby.<\/p>\n
“But I asked if I could stay and after conferring with his boss, the officer returned and told me I could stay but I was not allowed to ask any questions.”<\/p>\n
The PAS MP added that as soon as Low stepped onto the stage and finished his welcoming speech, he said the briefing was only for civil servants and the media.<\/p>\n
“And the two of us were then asked to leave.”<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat kind of integrity and good governance is this, especially coming from a former president of Transparency International?\u201d saidRaja Kamarul.<\/p>\n
He added that the incident left both of them to wonder if the public briefing was orchestrated to pacify the public.<\/p>\n
“I don’t see why we, as elected representatives, can’t be there. This is a big question mark.<\/p>\n
“We have the reports and it was also broadcast live. So why should it be a secret?” he said.<\/p>\n
Sim said the incident only showed that Low was unable to deal with the \u201ctough questions\u201d which would have been posed by the Pakatan MPs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don’t want to allow critical questions. It shows that the government has failed in transparency,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy calling only civil servants to attend the briefing session, it is as if the government is monitoring itself. This is an excellent way to whitewash the AG’s Report via a special briefing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raja Kamarul said the minister, however, had promised to have a briefing for MPs at a later date, but added that previous experiences have shown that this would not happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the same as the MH370 issue. The acting transport minister promised to hold a briefing for Pakatan MPs but that never happened, so why should we believe what Low says now?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two MPs from Pakatan Rakyat (PR) claimed they were kicked out of a public briefing on the latest series of the Auditor General’s Report by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Paul Low today. Sim Tze Tzin (PKR – Bayan Baru) and Datuk Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah Raja Ahmad (PAS – Kuala Terengganu) said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23693,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"better_featured_image":{"id":23693,"alt_text":"","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":640,"height":387,"file":"2014\/06\/datuk-raja.jpg","filesize":35900,"sizes":{},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0","keywords":[]}},"post":23692,"source_url":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/datuk-raja.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23692"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}