Had Hasan Arifin told a deliberate lie when he said that “most PAC members are overseas” when the overwhelming majority of PAC members were in fact in the country with more than a comfortable PAC quorum?

Had Datuk Hasan Arifin, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman, told a deliberate lie when he said that “most PAC members are overseas” as reason for the last-minute postponement of the PAC meetings scheduled yesterday and today for the Auditor-General to present his final audit report on the RM55 billion 1MDB scandal, when in actual fact the overwhelming majority of PAC members were in the country with more than a comfortable PAC quorum?

Had Hasan himself scampered and scurried overseas on Tuesday to give some semblance to his “tall tale” that “most PAC members are overseas” to justify the last-minute cancellation of the PAC meetings yesterday and today, which even MCA and Gerakan MPs on PAC had no advance notice?

Can Hasan reveal here where he has run to overseas, and what is he doing abroad when the PAC was scheduled to meet yesterday and today for the important conclusive stage of the PAC investigations into the 1MDB scandal?

Hasan should realise that if he is in the military, he would have been court-martialled and given the supreme penalty if he had absconded and abandoned his station and duties at the most crucial and critical hour!

I feel comforted that I have reason to believe that Hasan was not speaking the truth when he said that “most PAC members are overseas” and that the majority of the PAC members (regardless of political party) are not parliamentary miscreants who had played truant by scampering and scurrying overseas to sabotage the PAC meetings yesterday and today.

Is it not true that only two PAC members were overseas to perform the Umrah – Datuk Ahmad Hamzah (Jasin) and Datuk Nawawi Ahmad (Langkawi)?

Hasan’s scampering and scurrying overseas to make an infamous “trio” of PAC members overseas is a most irresponsible and even cowardly act.

I challenge Hasan to prove me wrong that the majority of the PAC members are in the country and could attend the PAC meetings yesterday and today if he had not “sabotaged” it by unilaterally, arbitrarily and even dictatorially “postponed” them to the first week of March.

The question is whether Hasan could be trusted that the two postponed PAC meetings would be held in the first week of March before Parliament reconvenes on Monday, March 7.

I have no confidence that Hasan could be trusted on this score! Is this the reason why Hasan has not made any public announcement as to when the PAC would meet before Parliament reconvenes of March 7 for the Auditor-General to submit his final audit report on the 1MDB?

Hasan is indeed one of a kind. In Malaysia and all over the world, everyone would want the speediest end to the mystery of the 1MDB scandal, which has brought such infamy to Malaysia’s international reputation, and should be pressurising the Auditor-General for early submission of his final audit report – but we have a PAC Chairman who is doing the very opposite, refusing to honour the scheduled PAC meetings for the Auditor-General to submit his final audit report on 1MDB, and wanting to cause further and indefinite procrastination.

The PAC should be one of the mechanisms to ensure that justice is done in the 1MDB scandal, but the PAC Chairman has now become a “fugitive from justice” by scurrying and scampering overseas to justify his unilateral and arbitrary postponement of the PAC meetings yesterday and today.

No PAC Chairman in Malaysia had committed a greater breach of parliamentary privilege than Hasan Arifin, who will go down in Malaysian parliamentary history as the most well-known but most infamous PAC Chairman.

What a shame and dishonour!

(Media Statement in Batu Pahat on Thursday, February 25, 2016)