Pakatan MPs to attend swearing in

Publication: NST

Date of publication: Jun 20, 2013

Section heading: Main Section

Page number: 012

Byline / Author: By Rahmah Ghazali

PETALING JAYA: Despite their protests against the electoral results, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said all 89 Pakatan members of parliament would attend the swearing-in ceremony at Dewan Rakyat on Monday.

The opposition leader told a press conference at the PKR headquarters here yesterday that they had agreed to boycott only the parliamentary briefing. On June 11, 88 out of 89 Pakatan MPs boycotted the briefing session by Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia. Bakri MP Er Teck Hwa was the only opposition member who turned up.

We have nominated a speaker for the house, so we can't boycott (the swearing-in ceremony), he said, adding that they had submitted former federal court judge Datuk Abdul Kadir Sulaiman as their candidate.

Anwar, who is also PKR de-facto leader, said the opposition needed to be consulted over the appointment of the speaker.

We want a man or a woman of integrity and who's independent. Therefore, we have submitted Kadir Sulaiman as our choice of speaker.

I believe in the spirit of parliamentary democracy. We need to be consulted and they cannot just run over people who are impartial, said Anwar.

Earlier, the Permatang Pauh MP cast doubt on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's newly-formed fiscal policy committee to improve the country's economic sustainability.

I cautiously take note of the announcement by Najib of the formation of a committee that will focus on reducing the national budgetary deficit to three per cent by 2015.

He said this could be achieved through strict economic governance and transparent government procurements without the need to introduce new tax policies such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Anwar said GST could be introduced only if the average income of Malaysians had risen significantly.

He also offered Pakatan's assistance to the police to improve public perception of the force.

I will table to the Pakatan leadership that a committee of Pakatan and Barisan Nasional representatives be formed to work with the inspector-general of police to address concerns about their safety.