KUALA LUMPUR – Opposition leader Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin has poured scorn on Tan Sri Johari Abdul, alleging that the Dewan Rakyat speaker is conspiring with the government to “protect” the interest of its ministers.
Addressing a press conference today, Hamzah, who is also Perikatan Nasional (PN) secretary-general, alleged that Johari has been acting unfairly towards opposition lawmakers due to his political ties with Pakatan Harapan (PH) component party PKR.
Such concerns, he said, were a non-issue when Johari’s predecessor, Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun also known as Art Harun, helmed the post.
“Of course, the previous speaker (Azizan) did a better job. He was not a politician, he was never involved in any political party. An appointed speaker should be fair, just, and impartial in any decisions they’re supposed to make.
“But now, (Johari is) colluding with ministers (to) protect them. This is not just felt by PN as a majority of people nationwide feel the same. I’ve met a number of people who said they’re not happy with how the Dewan sessions are being held.
“My point is that (Johari) is not being fair to the opposition. If you suppress whatever the opposition is trying to explain in the Dewan, we cannot highlight matters that could bring progress for the nation.”
Azhar was appointed to the position in 2020 under the administration led by then-prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and helmed the post throughout the tenure of Muhyiddin’s successor, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
Azhar then formally stepped down as speaker on December 18 last year, following which Johari took over the role after securing majority support from MPs against the opposition’s candidate for the position, ex-Umno senator Tan Sri Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad.
During his time as speaker, Azhar courted a number of controversies for supposedly siding with the PN-Barisan Nasional (BN) government at that time, such as when he rejected a motion put forth by the opposition to debate the Pandora Papers leak, an international exposé that named several prominent local leaders.
He was also criticised when he dismissed lawmakers’ attempts to debate the flood crisis in December 2021 and again when he rejected motions to debate the shareholding controversy involving Malaysian Anti-Corruption Chief Tan Sri Azam Baki in January last year.
Meanwhile, Hamzah also pointed to how Johari had bypassed a question to the Foreign Ministry during question-and-answer time in Parliament yesterday due to the absence of a minister or deputy minister to answer the query posed by DAP’s Beruas MP Datuk Ngeh Khoo Ham.
“The speaker should have admonished the government for failing to ensure that either a minister or deputy minister was in the House to answer the question,” said Hamzah, who is also Larut MP.
“When PN was in government, we always made sure that either a minister or their deputy was present in the House. Even if the minister was the one answering the question, their deputy had to be there.
“But yesterday, neither of them were around. What is the government’s problem?”
Besides that, Hamzah also took issue with a supposed mistake in the revenue projections of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s Budget 2024 fiscal review, claiming that it signifies the government’s lack of attention to detail.
It was previously reported that the opposition was up in arms over Deputy Finance Minister I Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan’s notice that the projection of RM623 million in revenue from indirect taxes has been revised to RM4.7 billion. – November 3, 2023