Wan Ahmad Fayhsal suspended from Dewan Rakyat for six months

KUALA LUMPUR: Wan Ahmad Fayshal Wan Ahmad Kamal has been slapped with a six-month suspension from the Dewan Rakyat.

This comes after the lower House passed a motion to suspend the Machang MP via a bloc vote on Thursday (July 18).

110 voted in favour of the suspension while 63 opposed it.

Wan Ahmad Fayshal then stood up and said “I will not surrender” before his microphone was turned off.

Perikatan Nasional MPs then said a prayer in the lower House after proceedings were halted for lunch.

The suspension means that Wan Ahmad Fayshal will not only miss Dewan Rakyat proceedings but also be unable to attend Parliamentary Special Select Committee meetings.

The Bersatu Youth Chief was suspended for referencing a poison pen letter when debating the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) 2021 report on July 1.

The letter allegedly revealed the "mastermind" behind the privatisation of Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB) as an Employees Provident Fund (EPF) employee, alongside the individual's supposed ill-treatment of colleagues.

The motion to suspend the Perikatan lawmaker was tabled by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reforms) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.

"Machang raised a poison pen letter whose author and contents are unverified.

"This has tarnished the reputation of the alleged individual and also officers from government agencies through such baseless allegations," she said when tabling the motion.

The motion was debated by both Perikatan and government MPs.

Azalina said Wan Ahmad Fayshal should have raised the matter through official channels.

“We are responsible for our statements. If we refer to official documents, the government does not have an issue.

“But don’t use poison pen letters as it will open the floodgates for all MPs to reference poison pen letters,” she said following the debates.

Azalina stressed that it is crucial to debate with facts.

“If Machang apologised for his actions, there is no issue as he qualified his statement.

“But he sat and let the thing go viral as if Parliament endorsed what Machang said.

“Who is defending government officers outside? Just because we are MPs, don’t act like we are above the law,” she said.