Malaysia's Parliament suspended a opposition lawmaker for one year after he accused the deputy PM of being connected with Mongolian woman'd death.
Monday, 16 March 2009 11:47
Malaysia's Parliament suspended a prominent opposition lawmaker for one year Monday after he accused the deputy prime minister of being connected with the murder of a Mongolian woman. Last week during a debate on the budget, MP Gobind Singh Deo demanded Najib answer questions over alleged links to the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shariibuu in 2006. The motion to suspend him was proposed Monday by Nazri Abdul Aziz, a lawmaker from the ruling National Front coalition, who said Gobind had committed a breach of his rights as a legislator.
Najib has repeatedly denied he is linked to the lurid murder in which Altantuya was shot twice and then blown up with explosives in a jungle outside the capital Kuala Lumpur and no evidence has been produced linking him to the killing. The opposition wants an official inquiry into the issue and has repeatedly sought to embarrass Najib, who is currently deputy prime minister. "It is a punishment fair to the offence committed by him (Gobind), because this ... is about accusing the deputy prime minister of the heinous crime of murder," said the minister in charge of parliament, Nazri Aziz.
A Malaysian court in late October freed a former top aide to Najib who had been charged with abetting two policemen in the murder of the model. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, himself a former deputy prime minister, led opposition MPs out of parliament after the decision, saying the suspension marked a "disturbing" sign of intolerance by the incoming Najib administration. "We can use the power of the majority to punish the MP, but the voice that Gobind has given rise to is still being spread, and the people are still waiting for answers," said Anwar.
Najib, 55, is the son of Malaysia's second prime minister and the nephew of its third and will take over from incumbent Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, whose poor showing in elections a year ago led to him stepping aside early. He will have to lead Malaysia through what is likely to be its deepest recession since the 1998 Asian financial crisis and his budget last week was criticised for being an inadequate response to the global economic downturn.
Monday, 16 March 2009 11:47
Malaysia's Parliament suspended a prominent opposition lawmaker for one year Monday after he accused the deputy prime minister of being connected with the murder of a Mongolian woman. Last week during a debate on the budget, MP Gobind Singh Deo demanded Najib answer questions over alleged links to the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shariibuu in 2006. The motion to suspend him was proposed Monday by Nazri Abdul Aziz, a lawmaker from the ruling National Front coalition, who said Gobind had committed a breach of his rights as a legislator.
Najib has repeatedly denied he is linked to the lurid murder in which Altantuya was shot twice and then blown up with explosives in a jungle outside the capital Kuala Lumpur and no evidence has been produced linking him to the killing. The opposition wants an official inquiry into the issue and has repeatedly sought to embarrass Najib, who is currently deputy prime minister. "It is a punishment fair to the offence committed by him (Gobind), because this ... is about accusing the deputy prime minister of the heinous crime of murder," said the minister in charge of parliament, Nazri Aziz.
A Malaysian court in late October freed a former top aide to Najib who had been charged with abetting two policemen in the murder of the model. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, himself a former deputy prime minister, led opposition MPs out of parliament after the decision, saying the suspension marked a "disturbing" sign of intolerance by the incoming Najib administration. "We can use the power of the majority to punish the MP, but the voice that Gobind has given rise to is still being spread, and the people are still waiting for answers," said Anwar.
Najib, 55, is the son of Malaysia's second prime minister and the nephew of its third and will take over from incumbent Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, whose poor showing in elections a year ago led to him stepping aside early. He will have to lead Malaysia through what is likely to be its deepest recession since the 1998 Asian financial crisis and his budget last week was criticised for being an inadequate response to the global economic downturn.
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