MH17: War of words over Rafizi’s fake tweet

KUALA LUMPUR: Amid the debate on the MH17 tragedy in Parliament, two MPs clashed over an alleged tweet by one of them that accused the Government of bribing Ukraine militants to hand over the plane's black boxes.

A ruckus erupted in the Dewan after Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong (BN - Ayer Hitam) pointed out that Rafizi Ramli (PKR - Pandan) had allegedly posted the tweet after Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced the black boxes would be in Malaysia's custody.

The argument began when the MCA deputy president expressed regret that some politicians criticised the Malaysian Government over the incident.

"Perhaps if those criticisms came from ordinary Malaysians, we can forgive them. But some of those comments came from politicians sitting in Parliament," he said when supporting the Prime Minister's motion to condemn the shooting down of the MH17 flight.

Dr Wee went on to cite examples like Nga Kor Ming (DAP - Taiping), who questioned why Malaysia Airlines had flown over Ukrainian airspace.

He then read out an alleged tweet by Rafizi saying "Jangan guna duit rakyat untuk rasuah militan ukraine serah kotak hitam. (Don't use public funds to bribe Ukraine militants to hand over the black boxes)".

This led Rafizi to interject and attempted to cite Dr Wee for misleading the House under Standing Order 36 (12) as the tweet was fake.

"I urge the minister to be careful. Don't be fooled by such lies. Please retract your statement," he said.

The MPs exchanged some barbs until Deputy Speaker Datuk Ronald Kiandee made a ruling that Dr Wee should continued his speech.

The debate resumed after that.