KUALA LUMPUR: Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz has challenged the Barisan Nasional Backbenchers Club (BNBBC) to get him sacked from the cabinet.
This is Nazri's latest salvo at the BNBBC which is meeting on Monday to decide on its next course of action against Nazri, who had described the club as being "childish and gangster-like" when it removed barricades put up by parliament security in the Dewan Rakyat lobby last Tuesday.
"I am expecting the BNBBC to recommend to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to sack me as a minister. If not, they should just shut up," said Nazri, who is still peeved over last Tuesday's events when contacted by phone yesterday.
Nazri said the BNBBC's behaviour on Tuesday was unacceptable. The security cordon was to restrict access to the Dewan Rakyat lobby and had resulted in a media boycott of all lobby activities such as press conferences and interviews.
Nazri said the BNBBC should not have felt inferior to the opposition, which had championed the media's rights in the house.
"Look at the opposition, they raised it in the chamber and then they took it up with the speaker in his office.
"If they felt they were bested in the issue by the opposition, who is to be faulted here?"
Nazri said the behaviour of the BNBBC was unacceptable as both deputy speakers had already indicated in the house that the decision to cordon off the lobby from the press would be reviewed by the speaker.
"Against this assurance, they went and did what they did without any regard for procedure."
The BNBCC, like their opposition counterparts, felt peeved with the barricades and decided to remove it themselves.
"Nobody seemed to know whose instruction it was to put up the barriers. We checked with everyone and all said they did not know. So we decided to remove them," BNBBC chairman Datuk Tiong King Sing had said.
Nazri's outburst at the BNBBC yesterday is a follow-up to his comments on Wednesday where he chided the club for removing the barricades.
"Don't think just because you are with the BNBBC you can do what you like. Is this a gangster club? They should know their place in the house where the power is with the speaker," he said
He warned the backbenchers not to resort to such actions again, saying the incident "embarrassed me".
On Thursday, Tiong said the BNBBC would meet on Monday to decide on action against Nazri.
V. Vasudevan
NST online
28/06/08
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