Fahmi Fadzil (PH-Lembah Pantai) stood up to ask deputy speaker Azalina Othman Said if Jeffrey, who is also a Sabah deputy chief minister, is supposed to still be under quarantine.
Mohd Azis Jamman (Warisan-Sepanggar) then said Jeffrey had attended the Sabah state assembly on Nov 12, which would mean he had yet to complete the mandatory quarantine order.
“We Sabah MPs have always complied with the rules. When we came to the peninsula, we were quarantined for 14 days. It’s been nearly two months since I’ve seen my wife and children because I couldn’t return to Sabah,” Azis said.
Azalina said she could not give an answer and instructed the Dewan Rakyat secretary to get a confirmation on the matter, telling the opposition MPs to wait for a while.
Dr Kelvin Yii (PH-Bandar Kuching) then asked Azalina to consider asking Jeffrey to leave the house momentarily while waiting for the confirmation, saying this was just “to be safe”.
Azalina said she could not do that and asked the MPs to wait for confirmation.
Teo Nie Ching (PH-Kulai) then asked the deputy speaker why she could not get Jeffrey to confirm whether he had completed the quarantine period since he was in the Dewan.
“If Keningau says he has already been quarantined, we’ll be satisfied,” she said.
Azalina then received confirmation from the Dewan Rakyat secretary, who presented a note from the Parliament doctor that Jeffrey had received a “release order” from the health ministry “after finishing quarantine”.
This prompted one MP to question if it was a case of double standard, to which Azis then said other Sabah MPs had made sacrifices by staying in the peninsula for the past two months without returning home.
“My aunt passed away last week, but I wasn’t allowed to go back. We have sacrificed nearly two months. If not, it would have been better for me to go back to Sabah to mourn (the death of) my aunt. But what we see here is that Keningau is allowed to enter the Dewan.”
Later on, speaker Azhar Azizan Harun said he had been informed that Jeffrey was given a release order and had his wristband cut by the Lembah Pantai district health office, adding that he was quarantined from Nov 12 until Nov 23.
Azis then asked if Jeffrey really completed his quarantine, saying the Keningau MP was spotted in Kota Kinabalu on Nov 13.
Azhar said he was merely acting according to the information he received from the authorities, adding that he could not be monitoring every single MP.
He then said he has instructed Jeffrey to leave the hall until he receives clarification from the health ministry on the matter.
Meanwhile, Chan Foong Hin (PH-Kota Kinabalu) submitted a motion to refer Jeffrey to the Rights and Privileges Committee, saying that he had breached the direction by the secretary of the House that was issued on Oct 9.