No more lies, Raymond tells Wong
The Member of Parliament for Sandakan, Steven Wong, has admi ed that he had not opposed the passing of the Tourism Tax Act during the Parliament si ng, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Raymond Tan.
SANDAKAN: The Member of Parliament for Sandakan, Steven Wong, has admitted that he had not opposed the passing of the Tourism Tax Act during the Parliament sitting, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Raymond Tan.
Tan said Wong had now said that he left the job to other DAP members in Parliament to “stop the Bill and safeguard Sabahan benefits”.
“This is another lie because none of the speakers has any interest to do it for him as shown in the Parliament's records of proceedings,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Tan said there was no need for Wong to explain how he was against the passing of the Act now when he had not taken part in the proceedings in Parliament to pass the law.
“As a member of parliament, his first duty is to attend proceedings in Parliament. The proceedings in Parliament for the passing of any laws are governed by rules called Standing Orders of the Dewan Rakyat made under 62(1) of the Federal Constitution,” he said.
According to Tan, the proceedings for the passing of the Tourism Tax Act began at the early hours of 6th April 2017 at 1.11am when the Minister of Tourism and Culture tabled the Bill for second reading under Standing Order 53(1). The sitting was presided by Deputy Speaker, Dato Sri Hj Ismail bin Hj Mohamed Said.
After the Bill was read the second time, a debate would commence for all members of the House present covering the general merits and principle of the Bill. At about 1.53am, the Deputy Speaker asked how many members would take part in the debate and made a head count of nine members. There was no ruling from the Deputy Speaker to stop any member who wished to speak. From the records, Wong was not among the nine members who spoke in Parliament.
Tan, who is the Tanjung Papat assemblyman, added Wong had the right to speak and voice his concern, especially about the development of tourism in Sandakan and its challenges. He did not do so and now he told another lie in his press conference that “not everyone was allowed to speak in Parliament, (Parliament is) not a market?”.
“We are not sure whether Wong understand his duty as member of parliament for Sandakan or Wong does not understand the Standing Orders of the Dewan Rakyat. Wong can ask his party colleagues to speak on his behalf and he can sleep easy in the hotel with all expenses paid by the government. Wong can have a press conference the next day in Sandakan to tell people how hard he has worked to ‘stop the passing of the Tourism Tax Act', taking advantage of the fact that nobody will know what is going on in Parliament anyway,” he said.
Tan said at 3.06am, the Deputy Speaker asked the minister to wind up and respond to the questions raised by the speakers in the House. Seven members of the House stood up and asked more questions about the Bill. Again, Wong was not one of them.
At 4.04am, the Bill was moved to the Committee of the whole House to discuss the details of the Bill (Standing Order 55 and 56). Six members of the House took part in the discussion in the committee stage. Again, Wong was not one of them. The motion to pass the Bill ended at 4.57am.
“Wong made many press statements and we did not know whether he was speaking the truth. He could be honest just to tell us that he had slept already when the debate proceedings on the Bill took place in Parliament.
"At least, we know now, in his own words that Wong tried to stop the passing of the Tourism Tax Bill by talking to the minister in the lobby. He had a selfie with the Minister of Tourism and Culture in the lobby or anywhere in Parliament and he used it to say he ‘worked hard to stop the passing' of the Tourism Tax Act. We will see how many more times that he is going to lie again,” said Tan.
Wong, who is the DAP Sabah chief, on Saturday urged Tan to apologise for stating that he had lied to the people.
Tan said in a recent statement that Wong was not telling the truth when he said DAP MPs had fought very hard to oppose the tourism tax when in fact Wong did not say anything during the passing of the Bill.