Pendang MP told to leave after accusing Nik Nazmi of lying over Malay reserve land

Pendang MP Awang Hashim was told to leave the Dewan Rakyat today after accusing Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad of lying to the House about Malay reserve land in Kedah. 

Deputy speaker Alice Lau ordered Awang to leave the hall for at least an hour. 

Awang, while debating the second reading of a bill, had read the details of a document from the Kedah Land and Mines office denying that the state had experienced a decline in area of Malay reserve land. 

He said Nik Nazmi's facts were inaccurate and accused him of lying to MPs. 

Bagan MP Lim Guan Eng then asked Awang to retract his accusation. 

But Awang said he would not do so as Nik Nazmi "had lied".

He also accused Nik Nazmi of having bad intentions towards the Kedah state leadership. 

Yesterday, Kedah Menteri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor denied that the state had lost the biggest amount of Malay reserve land. 

He said the narrative had been played up to give the impression that Kedah would suffer losses if it remained under Perikatan Nasional at the state election to come. 

Nik Nazmi said last week that three states – Kedah, Perak and Kuala Lumpur – had recorded a drop in area of Malay reserve land between 2021 and 2022. 

He said Malay reserve land in Kedah had fallen from 721,888.93 hectares to 716,537.

Perak meanwhile dropped from 953,042 hectares to 953,040, and Kuala Lumpur from 1,003 hectares to 999, he said. 

The total land area gazetted as Malay reserves however increased by 0.67% last year from 4.963 million hectares to 4.996 million hectares, he added.