KUALA LUMPUR: Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia today dismissed reports by online portals that he was biased in selecting which questions could be posed by Members of Parliament during sittings.
At a press conference here today, Pandikar referred to numerous reports by opposition-aligned portals accusing him of denying questions on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) from being asked to the floor.
"These (accusations) are disturbing to me and I should not have to answer them because in my role as Speaker, I do not owe any explanation to the public regarding matters (not relevant to) the Dewan Rakyat.
"I agree when a certain portal says that the Dewan Rakyat is the best place to discuss anything and everything, but as I have said in the past and countless times before, everything must adhere to the rules and procedures of the meeting," he told reporters, referring to the Standing Order.
Pandikar said the new rules require MPs to submit questions they wish to pose ten days before the sitting.
For this sitting, he said over 1,000 questions were submitted and only 30 were rejected as they were 1MDB-related.
"There are many, many more I have allowed to be asked in the Dewan – but why do they not see this?
"The ones which were rejected went against the Standing Order, so I could not allow them. I do not intentionally select which I prefer," he added.
Among the rejected questions, Pandikar said, were those containing assumptions, conjecture, accusations as disallowed by Standing Order 23 (1) (c) and those currently under legal proceedings as disallowed by Standing Order 36 (2).