Yong, who is the opposition component’s state organising secretary, said Chong was not given the boot solely for raising questions regarding an alleged missing RM250 million from last year’s state minor rural projects programme.
“This is the easiest way out for BN when it can’t provide answers for the questions raised by state representatives. It chooses to kick us out,” Yong told FMT.
“Suspension is a weapon the BN uses when it does not want its weaknesses exposed. There is no democracy in the Sarawak state assembly,” she said.
Yong added that it was “not wrong” for Chong to table a motion to direct the chief minister to provide a detailed answer to the state assembly as the issue involved “large amounts of taxpayer money”.
“The amount is not accounted for. The difference is RM250 million, which is a big amount. But somehow the state government was very sensitive when this discrepancy was raised,” Yong said.
“Normally the Speaker does not speak, but here, the Speaker seems to play the role of defending the ruling government every time sensitive issues are raised. This is not proper parliamentary practice,” she said.
Yesterday, Chong was officially suspended for making the “very serious allegation” of corruption against Chief Minister Adenan Satem.
Chong denied this, saying he was only pushing a motion for the House to direct the chief minister to provide a detailed account for last year’s minor rural project fund.
He said of the total RM905 million fund, RM250 million was unaccounted for. He told the media that it was “wrong” for Asfia to dismiss him based on those reasons.
“YB Chong is a rather vocal leader. So by suspending him, there are fewer opposition leaders that will raise questions on certain issues, such as Adenan’s U-turn on tabling a motion to reclaim Sarawak’s rights. But we will do our job,” Yong said.
Last Wednesday, Adenan, who is also state BN chief, made a surprise announcement that he would not be pushing to table a motion to reclaim Sarawak’s rights.
The motion, which would have been tabled by a state minister, would have called for a reversal of the 1976 amendment to Article 1(2) of the Federal Constitution, which had downgraded Sarawak’s status from an equal partner in Malaysia to one of the 13 states.
The motion would have been symbolic in nature, carrying no legal weight.
The Sarawak State Assembly sits until Nov 30.