Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua stands by his statements regarding irregularities in the government investment vehicle 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and is willing to face a motion to appear before a parliamentary committee regarding what he calls “the mother of all scandals” wrought by the Barisan Nasional government.

Following media reports of BN Ministers intending to refer him to the Parliamentary Rights and Privileges Committee, the DAP MP has challenged BN to proceed with their motion.

He was accused by Deputy Finance Minister Ahmad Maslan and UMNO MP for Lenggong Shamsul Anuar Nagariah of misleading Parliament on (1MDB) when debating the Budget 2015 committee stage for the Finance Ministry.

Tony Pua said that he welcomed the attempt by BN representatives to file the motion against him as he called it an attempt to silence him on the 1MDB issue.

“I have taken the trouble to listen to my own speech which was presented in Parliament on Thursday last week.”

“The facts and figures cited were entirely derived from credible, verifiable and often publicly available sources and hence I stand by my entire speech,” said Pua, responding to the claim by Ahmad Maslan that there were “factual errors” in his speech.

He also said that if wrong facts were presented by him, the relevant Minister or Deputy Minister could have corrected him to “teach him a lesson.” Explaining that the motion to censure him made “a complete mockery of the House”, he said that the Deputy Finance Minister Chua Tee Yong had wound up the debate after sidestepping all the questions he had raised on the controversial government organization.

The Rights and Privileges Committee that Pua could be referred to is the only body in Parliament that can censure an MP for statements made in Parliament.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP said that the attempt to “muzzle” him had given him encouragement, adding that he believes that he is on the right track.

“In fact, if they do indeed bring me to the privileges committee, I will have another golden opportunity to present all the relevant evidence on 1MDB’s scandals,” he said.

Pua, who over the years has been critical of the 1MDB and its impact on national financial debt had questioned in Parliament if the government would be inclined to bail-out the government body in the future. Attempting to shed light on the issue, Ahmad Maslan said last week that the government had not issued a letter of support for 1MDB – but contradicted himself when admitting to The Edge Financial Daily that the letter had in fact existed. -The Rocket