Thesun 2009-05-20 Page01 Khir Faces One-year Suspension

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No. 4762 PP 2644/12/2009 (023092)

Wednesday May 20, 2009

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Khir faces one-year suspension

REUTERSPIX

by Maria J. Dass [email protected]

HAH ALAM: Former Selangor mentri besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo faces up to a year’s suspension from the state legislative assembly for failure to attend a select committee hearing in March on the excesses of the now-defunct Wives of Selangor Barisan Nasional (BN) Parliamentarians and State Assemblymen Welfare Organisation (Balkis) headed by his wife, Datin Seri Zahrah Kechik. The hearing of the Select Committee for Competency, Accountability and Transparency (Selcat) was on Balkis’s expenditure before it was dissolved following BN’s defeat in Selangor in the 2008 general election. Mohd Khir, the Sungai Panjang assemblyman and current state opposition leader, also stands to lose his allowance of more than RM4,000 a month and other perks such as claims for office phone, driver, entertainment and special allowances. In addition, he faces suspension of six months for each of three alleged insulting statements he made about Selcat in his blog and in the press. These, too, include the suspension of allowance and perks. Mohd Khir’s colleagues Datuk Warno Dogol (Sabak), Mohd Isa Abu Kasim (Batang Kali), Datuk Marsum Paing (Dengkil) and Datuk Mohamed Idris Abu Bakar (Hulu Bernam) each face six months’ suspension and suspension of their allowances and perks for making statements deemed

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to have defamed the assembly. The assembly’s Rights and Privileges Committee met yesterday and made these recommendations, which will be tabled as motions at the next legislative assembly meeting in July. The assembly must approve the motions. Mohd Khir and the four others had accused Selcat of being a political tool used to defame him and claimed it was not an independent body but one “set up for the purpose of revenge”. “The penalty for Mohd Khir will run concurrently,” committee chairman Teng Chang Khim, who is also the assembly speaker, said. The five will be allowed to attend the next sitting pending the tabling of the motions. “We do not discourage assemblymen from giving criticisms but there are limits. In this case, they have made unfounded allegations that the committee is a political tool,” Teng said. He said one-third of all committees in the house are made up of opposition members and thus, it is not fair to accuse the committee of being partial. The harshest punishment meted out by the Selangor assembly was against Teng when he was barred for 30 months and stripped of his allowance and perks for 18 months for throwing a copy of the Standing Orders in a waste-paper basket in protest. Teng said he did not take part in the decision-making of the commit-

Cruz control… Actress Penelope Cruz grabs all the attention during a photocall for the film Los Abrazos Rotos at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival yesterday. Twenty films are competing for the prestigious Palme d’Or, which will be awarded on Sunday.

tee in keeping with the Standing Orders, which only look for the speaker’s vote if there is a tie. Warno Dogol, the BN’s representative on the committee, could not vote because he was under scrutiny, and his colleague Wong Koon Mun (Kuala Kubu Baru) did not attend the meeting. The committee members present yesterday were Dr Shafie Abu Bakar (Bangi),

Gan Pei Nei (Rawang) and Hannah Yeoh (Subang Jaya). Amiruddin Shari (Batu Caves) did not attend. Asked about Mohd Khir’s earlier statement that he would challenge any decision by the assembly to suspend him, Teng said: “Article 72 of the Federal Constitution says that proceedings of a state legislative assembly cannot be questioned in any court and that it is final.”

News without borders

Port Klang Authority GM quits by R. Nadeswaran and Terence Fernandez [email protected]

PETALING JAYA: The man hired to clean up the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) and to shore up the sagging finances of the Port Klang Authority (PKA) has quit. Lim Thean Shiang (pix), who was appointed on a two-year contract as the PKA general manager and PKFZ chief executive, tendered his resignation last week amidst talk of a fallout between him and the man who hand-picked him for the job, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat. Ong accepted Lim’s resignation on Thursday. It will be formalised when the PKA board meets tomorrow. The board meeting will also study a legal opinion on making public the audit report on the PKFZ. Various reasons have been bandied about on Lim’s premature departure but both Lim and Ong were tight-lipped, although sources said one of the contentious issues was that Lim had briefed government backbenchers even before Ong had briefed the cabinet on the report. Ong has declined to comment, maintaining that what was of paramount importance was for the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report – which has already been delayed by two weeks – to be made public as soon as possible. Sources said Ong briefed the cabinet on the report two weeks ago and has remained steadfast that it be made public although “there have been numerous attempts to prevent its publication”. Despite Ong’s instructions for the report to be made public, the PKA had shelved the announcement of the audit report to seek legal opinion on indemnifying PwC against possible legal suits. In an SMS to theSun, Lim said his resignation must first be tabled before the PKA board for it to take effect. He declined to give any reasons as to why he quit abruptly after less than a year at the helm, having taken over from Datin Paduka O.C. Phang.