{"id":2628,"date":"2010-06-08T11:43:57","date_gmt":"2010-06-08T03:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/buletinonline.net\/v7\/index.php\/2010\/06\/apco-chief-to-testify-at-anwars-rights-panel-hearing\/"},"modified":"2010-06-08T11:43:57","modified_gmt":"2010-06-08T03:43:57","slug":"apco-chief-to-testify-at-anwars-rights-panel-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/apco-chief-to-testify-at-anwars-rights-panel-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"APCO chief to testify at Anwar\u2019s rights panel hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 \u2014 APCO Worldwide chief executive officer Brad Staples will appear before the Parliamentary Rights and Privileges Committee tomorrow to testify against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim over his claims the company has Israeli links.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CEO himself will be here,\u201d said a source close to the powerful Parliament committee.<\/p>\n

He told The Malaysian Insider <\/em>APCO Worldwide\u2019s Europe, Middle East and Africa regional CEO is expected to tell the panel that Datuk Seri Najib Razak\u2019s 1 Malaysia has nothing to do with One Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is all we are interested to find out. We are not interested in anything else,\u201d said the MP who spoke anonymously.<\/p>\n

Staples\u2019 testimony denying APCO\u2019s Israeli links would be the committee\u2019s strongest evidence against Anwar, paving the way for his removal from the Dewan Rakyat, if found guilty.<\/p>\n

When debating the royal address during the last Parliament sitting, Anwar questioned why Najib engaged APCO, which he claimed was previously hired by the Israeli government.<\/p>\n

The Permatang Pauh MP also alleged that the 1 Malaysia initiative was a carbon copy of Ehud Barak\u2019s One Israel.<\/p>\n

APCO later issued a press statement to deny its links with One Israel and said that the 1 Malaysia initiative was conceived prior to the company\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n

Najib announced the 1 Malaysia concept when taking office on April 3 last year, pledging to listen to the people and declaring that \u201cthe era where the government knows best is over\u201d.<\/p>\n

Staples\u2019 presence tomorrow will be the firm\u2019s first opportunity to defend itself in Parliament.<\/p>\n

Apart from Staples, Minister in the Prime Minister\u2019s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz will also give his evidence to the committee tomorrow, which is the second day of the hearing.<\/p>\n

The committee has rejected Anwar\u2019s application to allow his counsel to attend his hearing.<\/p>\n

The proceeding will continue tomorrow in the absence of the former deputy prime minister.<\/p>\n

The Rights and Privileges Committee is chaired by Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia and consists of four Barisan Nasional (BN) members and two Pakatan Rakyat MPs.<\/p>\n

The BN representatives are Deputy Speaker Datuk Ronald Kiandee (Beluran), Datuk Seri Dr Fong Chan Onn (Alor Gajah), Datuk Nancy Shukri (Batang Sadong) and Datuk Razali Ibrahim (Muar).<\/p>\n

PR is represented by PKR\u2019s Subang MP Sivarasa Rasiah and DAP chairman Karpal Singh (Bukit Gelugor).<\/p>\n

Anwar will likely face censure and a possible suspension for his remarks which dominated the last parliamentary sitting and have been used consistently as campaign fodder in the Hulu Selangor and Sibu by-elections. – MalaysianInsider<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KUALA LUMPUR, June 8 \u2014 APCO Worldwide chief executive officer Brad Staples will appear before the Parliamentary Rights and Privileges Committee tomorrow to testify against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim over his claims the company has Israeli links. \u201cThe CEO himself will be here,\u201d said a source close to the powerful Parliament committee. He told The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"better_featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2628"}],"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=2628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2628\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}