GEORGE TOWN – Malaysia’s current political impasse, stemming from Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s refusal to step down, must be urgently resolved as it supersedes everything else in the nation including the Covid-19 pandemic, said a PKR senator.
Speaking to The Vibes, Yusmadi Yusoff questioned Muhyiddin’s courage, or lack thereof, when it comes to testing his majority in Parliament, especially seeing that at least 80% of those required to attend Parliament have already been double-dosed.
He noted that one cannot be expected to conduct government business and fight the pandemic if one is illegally clinging on to power.
“How can officials in the civil service and the public comply with directives from a government with no majority to be in such a position in the first place?” he said.
“Why is Muhyiddin afraid of reopening Parliament when 80% of officials and elected representatives are doubly vaccinated? They have achieved herd immunity inside. The facilities and buildings are constantly sanitised when people are inside.
“According to a contagious disease expert in the Health Ministry, if a positive case is detected and the place is fumigated, a meeting can be done within three hours of the alleged infection,” said Yusmadi.
He added that Parliament meetings can be reconvened through a hybrid session that half of the MPs can physically attend, and the other can attend virtually.
The upper House member called upon Muhyiddin to do what is morally right instead of prolonging the political impasse at the expense of everyday Malaysians.
He said that a proper and legitimate government is needed to rally the public behind unpopular or tough Covid-19 policies, because to effectively contain a pandemic, one needs a government amenable to all parties.
Referring to Muhyiddin’s remarks that a vote of confidence will be tabled when Parliament reconvenes next month, Yusmadi added that the Bersatu president and Pagoh MP’s antics in claiming a majority he can prove in September – after a delay the public are sarcastically saying he needs to buy MPs – are damaging to Covid-19 containment efforts.
Yusmadi said that Muhyiddin’s actions border on treachery, if he persists in trying to prove he has the majority.
"Perikatan Nasional (PN) was given the benefit of doubt not once, but twice. First was when they mysteriously came into power and convinced the people that they had the majority.
“Then they asked for a state of emergency. Both were given, but instead of using it to contain Covid-19, they allowed it to go on a rampage.
“We were bitten twice, now we are shy,” said the senator.
Yusmadi added that in the first place, the PN administration entered Putrajaya through a backdoor and did not receive the rakyat’s mandate – making it a weak government from the start, as lack of public support hampers the government’s efforts to battle the pandemic.
He noted that the public would neither cooperate nor participate in public programmes conceived by a government without a mandate – especially when the policies are tough and unpopular, and sacrifices have to be made.
Constitutionally speaking, Yusmadi said, once a sitting prime minister loses the majority, the entire cabinet should resign with him, as had happened with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad last year, leading to Muhyiddin forming his own cabinet and government.
Now that a similar situation presents itself, he said, the government including deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob should resign if Muhyiddin cannot find a majority. – The Vibes, August 5, 2021
