PENDING assemblyman Violet Yong (DAP), the was fined RM2,000 by the Sarawak state assembly for disparaging the speaker on her Facebook account.

The amount is the maximum under section 24 (1) of the Privileges and Powers Ordinance of the Sarawak state assembly.

The state’s Second Finance Minister Wong Soon Koh, in moving a motion to penalise Yong, said the post damaged the reputation of Speaker Mohd Asfia Awang Nasser as “thousands of people had been misled” by it.

Yong had posted: “Charged Exp (expenditure) T.02 Sarawak DUN Speaker emoluments for the year 2019 is RM5,957,000,” in reference to the head of expenditure of the state’s 2019 budget and the charged expenditure.

Wong said the post was misleading as it implied the speaker’s salary RM5.957 million.

He said the post was “hoping to score political mileage for her political agenda and to disparage the speaker”.

In her defence, Yong said she had no intention to ridicule the speaker or bring the state assembly into disrepute with Tuesday’s post, and instead blamed Wong and his Treasury Department staff for drawing up a vague budget report.

Wong insisted it was a deliberate act as the post, complete with the shocked emoticon, was designed to make the public think the amount represented the speaker’s salary to cause “public outrage”.

He said item T02 under the head of “expenditure” with the vote head title “Speaker of the Dewan Undangan Negeri” was not the speaker’s salary, but the payment of allowances for the speaker, deputy speakers, and members of the assembly.

“She should know the speaker’s salary cannot be RM5 million.

“If she had any doubt, she should have contacted the speaker’s office or the Finance Ministry for clarification,” Wong said.

“I can only conclude that the post is ill-intentioned.”

Yong, who accused Wong of making a mountain out of a molehill by moving the motion to punish her, was even offered a reduction of the fine on condition that she made an apology publicly and to the assembly, and deleted the post.

Yong rejected the offer.

Following party lines, 62 assemblymen voted for the motion to punish Yong while eight voted against. – November 14, 2018.