DEPUTY Primary Industries and Commodities Deputy Minister Willie Mongin has denied showing his middle finger at the opposition in the Dewan Rakyat today.

“Chairman, I wish to confirm that it is untrue but I’m ready to apologise if it did happen.

“I believe, that they may have seen wrongly,” said the Puncak Borneo MP after Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun asked him to explain his actions.

A video of the incident has been uploaded on Twitter.

Willie made the gesture at the opposition when they began taunting him with chants of “pengkhianat” (traitor), after asking for a division vote on his ministry’s budget allocations for 2021, earlier today.

Willie is among 10 MPs who defected from PKR to Bersatu in February, causing Pakatan Harapan to lose its majority in Parliament.

However, amid the shouts by opposition MPs for Azhar to re-examine the CCTV footage, the speaker decided to adjourn the proceedings without taking any further action.

“But Minister for Higher Education Noraini Ahmad (BN-Parit Sulong) saw it too,” said P. Kasthuriraani (PH-Batu Kawan).

“She even told Willie to cool it several times,” he said.

Azhar, nevertheless, decided it was time to adjourn and paid no heed to it.

This is not the first time Willie has courted trouble in Parliament.

In Aug 2018, he, while with PH, had accused Bung Mokhtar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) of visiting casinos, prompting the latter to challenge him to a fist fight.

Bung, who is now Sabah deputy chief minister, had also shouted back “Fxxx you!” at Willie.

Meanwhile, Perikatan Nasional obtained 108 voters to 95 for the Primary Industries and Commodities Ministry’s budget during the division vote today.

According to Azhar, there were 17 absentees with no abstentions.

Earlier, Dewan Rakyat also approved the budgets for the Foreign Affairs and National Unity ministries by voice vote.

The budgets for five out of 27 ministries have been approved in the past two days. The final third reading and vote for Budget 2021 is scheduled for December 15. – December 1, 2020.