KUALA LUMPUR – Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (Bagan Datuk-BN) will be tabling a motion in the lower House today seeking to suspend Datuk Wan Saiful Wan Jan (Tasek Gelugor-PN) from Parliament for six months.
According to the Order Paper today, Zahid in his capacity as Rural and Regional Development minister, claimed that Wan Saiful should face the music for accusing Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (Tambun-PH) of abusing his power.
“On February 28, 2024, Wan Saiful issued a statement saying that ‘corruption is an abuse of power, and the person who abuses that power will have an audience with His Majesty every week prior to the cabinet meeting’.
“Implicitly, Tasek Gelugor (Wan Saiful) alleged that the prime minister abused his power. This was made with bad intentions even though the Yang di-Pertuan Agong has repeatedly cautioned against making such statements.”
Zahid also claimed that Wan Saiful has abused his rights and privileges as a parliamentarian as well as showed contempt of Dewan Rakyat.
On February 28, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul gave Wan Saiful a spectacular rebuke after the Bersatu MP indirectly accused Anwar Ibrahim of corruption.
Wan Saiful, who later apologised and retracted his statement, was debating the royal address and had expressed support for Agong’s remarks against corruption. However, this ignited a fierce reaction from government backbenchers.
Although he did not name Anwar, it is a known convention that the prime minister meets the King every week before the cabinet meeting.
MPs were already on edge as Wan Saiful had just before this claimed he was induced to support Anwar with an offer to have his corruption charges dropped. – March 5, 2024