Guan Eng wants PAS MP Siti Mastura referred to privileges committee

Bagan MP Lim Guan Eng claims that Kepala Batas MP Siti Mastura Muhammad’s comment was malicious and aimed at disrupting harmony.

PETALING JAYA: Bagan MP Lim Guan Eng has asked for a PAS MP to be referred to Parliament’s privileges committee for making a “false claim” that over a million Chinese nationals had overstayed and failed to leave the country.

The request follows Kepala Batas MP Siti Mastura Muhammad’s claim, made during a Dewan Rakyat sitting on March 4, that more than 1.2 million Chinese nationals had not left Malaysia between 2018 and 2021.

Her remarks stemmed from a parliamentary reply made by the Perikatan Nasional government in 2022, which was later admitted as erroneous, the DAP chairman said.

In a letter to Speaker Johari Abdul, Lim said that despite having the claim debunked by home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and his predecessor, Hamzah Zainudin, Mastura had continued to repeat it.

“It is clear that the Kepala Batas MP’s false and misleading speech in this august house was maliciously intended to disrupt the harmony of our multicultural society, creating unrest, anxiety and tensions among the people by stirring up racial sentiments,” Lim said in the letter made available to FMT.

He said the Hansard shows that only 92 Chinese nationals were detained as undocumented migrants during an early 2023 crackdown, with 809 being denied entry into the country that year, “numbers which starkly contrasted with the figures Mastura had mentioned”.

Lim said Hamzah, who was the home minister during the PN administration, had admitted that the claim was inaccurate. Citing the Hansard from 2022, he quoted Hamzah as saying the home ministry would make that correction.

“Kepala Batas (Mastura) knows that the facts are wrong but is stubborn by playing up this perception. Why would Hamzah, who is from the same party as her, be lying to her underling?” he said.

Checks by FMT showed that the claim stemmed from a July 2022 parliamentary reply by the home ministry to then Tasek Gelugor MP Shabudin Yahaya.

The reply was published by a few news outlets and remains accessible until today.

FMT has contacted Mastura for comment.