Dewan Rakyat Speaker Johari Abdul has rejected the opposition’s motion to refer Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to the rights and privileges committee for allegedly misleading the House on the Batu Puteh issue, said Perikatan Nasional chief whip Takiyuddin Hassan.
Takiyuddin said the motion was rejected on grounds that it was tied to the recommendations of the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) which probed the territorial dispute.
“But the RCI never said former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was guilty – not at all,” he told reporters at the main entrance of Parliament today.
Takiyuddin, the PAS secretary-general, also repeated his allegation that Anwar had taken over the responsibilities of law enforcement and the judiciary.
“He (Anwar) should have lodged a police report to initiate an investigation and then left it to the attorney-general (AG),” he told reporters outside Parliament after receiving a memorandum from several groups opposing the Urban Renewal Bill.
On July 24, Takiyuddin said he submitted the motion to refer Anwar to the rights and privileges committee, citing Standing Order 36(12) which concerns misleading the House.
This came after Anwar told the Dewan Rakyat that the Cabinet had decided not to pursue legal action against Mahathir over his role in the Batu Puteh case due to his advanced age.
Takiyuddin claimed Anwar had misled the Dewan Rakyat by implying that the authority to prosecute Mahathir over the Batu Puteh issue lay with the prime minister and his Cabinet rather than the AG.
The RCI last year found that Mahathir had likely acted deliberately to influence the Cabinet to discontinue review applications regarding Batu Puteh’s sovereignty in 2018, despite the views of international consultants who said the applications had a reasonable likelihood of success.
The RCI recommended that a police report be lodged against Mahathir, saying a criminal investigation could be initiated under Section 415(b) of the Penal Code for cheating.
Mahathir himself said he did not need immunity because of his age, and that he should be brought to court to answer the allegations against him.
