Elected representatives from opposition pact Pakatan Rakyat reiterated today their demand for an emergency session of Parliament to discuss the Lahad Datu crisis.
“There are 222 MPs who need to know (about Lahad Datu), not only the Pakatan MPs,” PKR Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul said at a joint Pakatan press conference in Petaling Jaya today.
Johari reminded the government that the people needed to know about this security crisis, and that the MPs, as the people’s representatives, must be briefed.
Among other concerns, he said, the MPs have not been told how the intruders evade our border surveillance, whether the police had been given adequate orders and equipment to handle the intrusion, and on whether there were dangers of further spillover troubles from the Lahad Datu flashpoint.
PAS Shah Alam MPAbdul Khalid Samad, who represented his party at the press conference, also said that the government continued to withhold information about its earlier dealings with the Sulu sultanate representatives, as alluded to by the Philippine media.
Something that,Abdul Khalid said, must be disclosed.
He also worries that without proper access to the details, the MPs and the rakyat may not get the real picture.
“The government has a tendency to downplay issues,” he lamented.
Abdul Khalid pointed to Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein’s earlier dismissal of the Lahad Datu invaders as a threat, and the statement by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz (left) that the incident is not a war, but just an incursion.
The third member of the Pakatan trio at the press conference today – DAP Bukit Bendera MP Liew Chin Tong – believes that the matter of national security requires bipartisan involvement.
“In normal democracies, external threats are handled in a bipartisan manner, with both sides being called in and briefed,” Liew said.
He added that DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang has already broached the matter with Nazri, but was told that only the PM has the right to convene emergency Parliament sessions.
Pakatan MPs started demanding for the emergency session after the standoff began when more than 200 intruders – some armed – occupied the village of Tanduo in Lahad Datu.
However, the government has been silent on the matter.
Video and news courtesy of Malaysiakini
-The office of MP for Shah Alam-
“There are 222 MPs who need to know (about Lahad Datu), not only the Pakatan MPs,” PKR Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul said at a joint Pakatan press conference in Petaling Jaya today.
Johari reminded the government that the people needed to know about this security crisis, and that the MPs, as the people’s representatives, must be briefed.
Among other concerns, he said, the MPs have not been told how the intruders evade our border surveillance, whether the police had been given adequate orders and equipment to handle the intrusion, and on whether there were dangers of further spillover troubles from the Lahad Datu flashpoint.
PAS Shah Alam MP
Something that,
He also worries that without proper access to the details, the MPs and the rakyat may not get the real picture.
“The government has a tendency to downplay issues,” he lamented.
The third member of the Pakatan trio at the press conference today – DAP Bukit Bendera MP Liew Chin Tong – believes that the matter of national security requires bipartisan involvement.
“In normal democracies, external threats are handled in a bipartisan manner, with both sides being called in and briefed,” Liew said.
He added that DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang has already broached the matter with Nazri, but was told that only the PM has the right to convene emergency Parliament sessions.
Pakatan MPs started demanding for the emergency session after the standoff began when more than 200 intruders – some armed – occupied the village of Tanduo in Lahad Datu.
However, the government has been silent on the matter.
Video and news courtesy of Malaysiakini
-The office of MP for Shah Alam-
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