KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 — The parliamentarians, who were present in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday during the bloc vote despite officially being placed under a home surveillance order (HSO), received prior clearance from the Health director-general, the Dewan Rakyat Speaker said today.
Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun added the three MPs — Tenggara MP Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba who is also the health minister; Tapah MP Datuk Seri M. Saravanan who is the human resources minister; and Batu MP P. Prabakaran — wrote to Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah seeking permission to be present in Parliament to exercise their vote on ministry budget allocations.
“Tenggara, Tapah and Batu wrote to the Health director-general to ask for permission to be present in Parliament.
“The Health director-general also wrote back to all three separately and allowed them to be present during voting,” Azhar told the Dewan Rakyat today.
He was responding to Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who requested a clarification following yesterday’s walkout staged by Opposition bloc MPs in protest against the HSO exemption given to the three MPs during the bloc voting process for the Federal Territories Ministry’s budget allocation.
Azhar added that this exemption was not something new, and has been granted previously to persons under surveillance who needed to attend funerals or had urgent business.
“That is why I allowed the MPs to wear PPE (personal protective equipment) and in accordance with Standing Order 41(f) taking into account everyone’s safety and welfare,” he said.
Additionally, Azhar said the HSO for the Tenggara MP ended yesterday, followed by the Batu MP today and the Tapah MP on Thursday.
Yesterday, chaos ensued in the lower House when Azhar appeared not to offer a satisfactory clarification for his decision to let the three lawmakers under home quarantine into Parliament for a vote.
This resulted in the majority of Opposition MPs from PKR and DAP walking out of the Dewan Rakyat in protest when bloc voting was called.