KUALA LUMPUR – The Council of Rulers, which will be meeting this Wednesday, must come to the decision to reconvene Parliament, said one of Malaysia’s earliest influential bloggers, Datuk Ahirudin Attan, more famously known by his moniker Rocky Bru.
In an article in The Mole, the PETRA News executive director said that the National Operations Council (Mageran) as mooted by two-time former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is not an option as it is another tool of emergency.
He stressed that returning the country to its proper democratic process through Parliament will also be able to resolve who should be leading the nation in this time of historically unseen turmoil.
“If the king had asked me, I would have said this: the Council of Rulers has to do one thing and one thing only – get Parliament to reconvene. Democracy will do the rest. It’s that simple, really.
“With Parliament in session, the MPs who are representatives of the people can decide at the Dewan Rakyat (or even outside Parliament, as precedence would show) who should lead them from now till the next general election.
“Let them pick the one among them who should be the new prime minister,” he said.
“Needless to say, retaining a failed government is not an option. Mageran is NOT an option, either. It is just a tool of darurat/emergency. This is not ‘69, for heaven’s sake. And we need to end this darurat.
“With Parliament in session, the king can finally proclaim the end of this so-called political darurat, which is what he has been wanting to do, or so I was told,” Ahirudin said.
At the same time, the veteran award-winning journalist also said he believes that Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah and his brothers in the Council of Rulers should not decide who will replace Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister.
He advocated Parliament as the correct platform to make this decision, citing the king’s attempt last year when His Majesty summoned MPs to Istana Negara to ascertain their support, which was followed by the current “backdoor” administration taking over in Putrajaya.
“It pains me, therefore, to see the YDPA currently granting audience to the leaders of the political parties again to (maybe) decide on who has the numbers and, therefore, who should be PM,” Ahirudin said.
“The king did that last year and that resulted in the ‘backdoor’ government which, we all can agree, has failed really and truly miserably.
“It didn’t work then and there’s no reason to believe it will work this time. We can’t be doing the same thing and expecting different results this time, kan?” he asked.
Touching on who should next helm the country, Ahirudin thinks that the best candidate would be PKR president and opposition chief Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
He noted that there are many who would disagree with him, but having seen other leaders such as Dr Mahathir, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Muhyiddin taking Malaysia’s highest political office and failing to deliver, perhaps Anwar could actually do better.
“Umno’s two strongmen Najib Razak and Zahid Hamidi are clearly not averse to the idea of Anwar leading.
“And if PAS, Amanah, the most chauvinist in DAP, and the parties in Sabah and Sarawak have had no problems working with this man because they thought he was THE ONE, who am I to tell them not to this time?
“Maybe Anwar really is the only one who can take us out of this Mother of all Doldrums. Maybe I’m starting to think that way, too…” he pondered. – The Vibes, June 12, 2021
