THE Dewan Rakyat speaker may invoke Standing Orders to convene an open hearing on the MACC chief’s alleged misdeeds, Public Accounts Committee chairman Wong Kah Woh said today.

Wong said it is wrong of Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun to hold proceedings in relation to the Azam Baki case behind closed doors as they are a matter of public interest. 

“With such an important subject in hand, why is the speaker still hesitant (to make the proceedings open) to enable the public to watch, evaluate and scrutinise the testimony given by the witnesses?” Wong said in a statement.

Azhar yesterday said a select committee meeting on Wednesday to discuss the shareholdings of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Azam Baki will not be accessible to the public due to Parliament’s Standing Orders. 

“The speaker is not right. He has the power to initiate the suspension of Standing Order by referring the same to the House for a decision pursuant to Standing Order 90(2),” said Wong

“With the suspension of Standing Order 85, any parliamentary committee proceedings can be aired online and open to the public.”

Azhar said confidentiality was necessary to ensure the full cooperation of all parties at the questioning but Wong said that was “totally absurd” as all witnesses are duty bound to fully cooperate with the committee and answer all its questions during the process.

“Secondly, any person who gives false answers has not only committed a contempt of the House, but is also liable for an offence under section 193 of the penal code as provided for in section 20 of the Houses of Parliament (Privileges and Powers) Act 1952. 

“Thirdly, all the notes of proceedings are recorded on the Hansard and will be published together with the committee’s report. 

“The Parliamentary Standing Order Committee in 2019 made the decision for all parliamentary committee proceedings be made public, and the hardware requirements for live proceedings are ready and in place on the Malaysia Parliament TV Channel.

“The PAC chairmen had been writing to the speaker since Nur Jazlan’s (Mohamad) time for this. I do not know how many more times we need to do so and make the same call over and over again,” Wonf said, referring to a last PAC chairman Nur Jazlan Mohamad.

“It is the public’s right to know that matters. It is an important issue that involves the top rank officer which had put the integrity of MACC at stake. It is time for the speaker to ensure that all parliamentary committees can function efficiently and effectively to check on the executive.” – January 17, 2022.