KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 – A motion to refer PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar (PKR-Lembah Pantai) to the rights and privileges committee for meeting the Sulu princess Jacel Kiram on Nov 9 was tabled in Dewan Rakyat today. Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Azalina Othman said Nurul Izzah’s action is seen to have gone against her oath as an MP and oath of loyalty to protect the country and defend the Constitution.
The eight-paragraph motion, brought by a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, is over Nurul Izzah’s meeting with Jacel Kiram, the daughter of self-proclaimed Sulu sultan Jamalul Kiram III, uploaded a photo taken with Nurul Izzah during a recent trip to the Philippines became viral in the social media recently.
“Lembah Pantai MP’s action has raised a negative and insensitiv perception to the Lahad Datu intrusion in 2013 by Sulu gunmen, who were Jamalul’s followers. And that the action of Lembah Pantai was also an insult and has smeared the good name and prestige of the Dewan Rakyat,” Azalina said.
Jamalul was the mastermind behind the Lahad Datu incursion in 2013 by his Sulu militants, which left scores of Malaysian security forces dead. Nurul had since expressed regret for the hurt caused to the families of the slain soldiers, and had reportedly said she never sought to meet with Jacel and had never been acquainted with her before.
She said Jacel was one of the 15 guests invited by the council on Philippine affairs and the Asian Institute for Democracy, the office of the city mayor of Manila and the office of the vice-president of the Philippines. She added that everyone present at the meeting took photographs with her in support of the United Nation Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s position, which was for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to be immediately released. Meanwhile, the pictures have also led some Barisan Nasional politicians to accuse the PKR lawmaker of violating Malaysia’s sovereignty.
