KUALA LUMPUR: Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has questioned the government's decision to contact the Dewan Rakyat Speaker over allegedly misleading remarks that Opposition lawmakers have been making in Parliament.
He said members of parliament from both factions could express their views, provided they do so in adherence to the regulations set forth by the Dewan Rakyat.
"I am concerned after reading a recent statement from the communications minister. What exactly did he say? He said the cabinet had discussed the statements made by the Opposition MPs, over which he would later protest to the Speaker, and that this and that were incorrect.
"It is strange, it has never happened in the history of the country since independence. What the MPs want to say is the right of the MPs. You disagree, that's a matter of your right to disagree," he said in his closing remarks at the PN MPs and Assemblymen Convention here today.
Muhyiddin then took a jab at the government for wanting to contact Tan Sri Johari Abdul over the alleged controversial remarks in the Dewan Rakyat.
"But is it the right of an MP, whether from the government or the opposition, to address an issue in accordance with the meeting rules agreed upon by the speaker and the cabinet in order to reprimand them? I do not find it strange because that is the state of the government," he said.
Yesterday, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil announced that the Cabinet had voiced a "firm reprimand" against lawmakers who made misleading statements during the royal address debate in the Lower House.
He said the Cabinet would contact the office of the Dewan Rakyat Speaker to ensure the matter did not recur.