RM52b bumi shares loss trivial, says Parliament

DAP's Guan Eng is baffled as to why his query on the RM52b loss of bumi shares was rejected and considered trivial by the August house.

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KUALA LUMPUR: DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng today was puzzled as to why his query on the loss of RM52 billion worth of shares for the bumiputera was rejected by parliament.

The Bagan MP hit out saying that the rejection was against principles of democracy and affects the smooth operations of the parliament.

“Why was the question rejected with a trivial reason? We just want them to investigate, we are not accusing anyone here,” said Lim.

In 2009, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak had admitted that only RM2 billion from the RM54 billion of bumiputera shares given since 1971 remained in Malay hands.

In his query, Lim had asked why a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) was not set up to investigate the RM52 billion loss.

“It is the biggest scandal in Malaysia as it involves a huge amount of money being squandered by Umno leaders and their cronies,” said Lim.

In a letter addressed to Lim from Parliamentary secretary Roosme Hamzah, the letter stated that a query cannot request information on trivial matters.

“A query cannot contain any argument, thought, accusation, praise or vilification or contain any misleading words, sarcastic or offensive, or regarding anything superficial or requesting information on trivial matters,” read the letter.

Lim however disagreed, saying it is definitely not a trivial issue.

“This is a big issue. If they think certain sentences are inappropriate, they can filter sentences which they deem offensive.

“We just want justice for the poor Malays, Iban and Kadazan. This is not a racial issue, we just want to know where is the money,” he said.

Penampang MP Darell Leiking who was also at the press conference said that a lot needs to be answered.

“Sabah is richest in oil however we’re the poorest state. These shares were supposed to assist the poor and alleviate their suffering.

In expressing his support for the RCI to be set up, he said it will be able to identify the reasons why the money was lost.

“This would be the first RCI to be established since the last general election,” he added.

The government, in particular Umno has been avoiding this issue for long despite being pressed for answers by the opposition.FMT