Don’t put words in our mouths – Baru

KUCHING: Ba Kelalan assemblyman Baru Bian has reminded Barisan Nasional (BN) ministers not to put words into the opposition members’ mouths by saying that they had agreed with Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Adenan Satem’s stand because nobody said anything during his winding up address.

Baru, who is state PKR chairman, said he took exception, particularly to the statement by Second Finance Minister Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh that the opposition had agreed with the Chief Minister’s stand on reclaiming the state’s rights because nobody said anything during his winding up address.

“A seasoned BN-man should not presume to know the minds of those who prefer independent and inquiring thinking to perpetually towing the BN line. Being quiet during the CM’s windingup speech does not mean we agreed with everything he said. That is true of the other Ministers too.

“The rule of the Dewan (State Legislative Assembly) is that one cannot interrupt the Minister concerned unless one wants some clarifications. We were merely observing decorum in the Dewan.

“In any event, the CM was restating what he had already said outside the Dewan regarding what he and the State BN had decided. We had also made our stand outside of the Dewan in response to the CM’s change of mind, and I had also spoken about it in my address to the Dewan on Wednesday last week when Wong Soon Koh was not present. It was therefore completely mistaken of him to make that assumption,” Baru said in a press statement yesterday.