IT is evident that Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has lost the support of the largest component of the ruling coalition, Umno.
Therefore he does not now command the confidence of a majority of MPs in the Lower House, the prime requisite of being prime minister.
Muhyiddin should not prolong the corrosive uncertainty surrounding his legitimacy as prime minister by dilly-dallying over resigning.
A refusal to do so would accelerate Malaysia’s descent along the “road to failed statehood” Bloomberg has predicted is our present trajectory.
Muhyiddin had asked for and obtained a declaration of emergency on January 12 to better manage the Covid-19 pandemic, a declaration that saw Parliament unnecessarily prorogued.
Neither the pandemic nor the economic impoverishment its multiple lockdowns caused has eased under the watch of the prime minister.
Therefore, the emergency has not achieved the purpose for which it was declared and the stilling of Parliament has turned out to be a manoeuvre to deflect scrutiny of government conduct.
The mushrooming of white flags, an emblem of desperation felt by people struggling to put food on the table, is the confirmation that the prime minister has failed.
This picture of gloom is compounded by scenes being made viral on social media of hospitals deluged with patients, frontliners verging on burnout, and a healthcare system on the brink of collapse.
Our vaccination roll-out process is tardy in comparison with our neighbours, though it has been speeded up of late, but this haste has been too little, too late.
To make matters worse, rising unemployment and plunging foreign direct investments have caused the whole economic outlook to be submerged in gloom.
While the country is sliding down the road to disaster, the Perikatan Nasional government shows it is out of sync with the people by engaging in manoeuvres to keep its hold on power.
It is as if their survival is more important than their concern for the sufferings of the people.
Now with infectivity rates and fatalities mounting, a moment of grave national crisis has descended on the nation.
I appeal to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to intervene on a matter of grave necessity to urge the prime minister to do the honourable thing in the circumstances and resign.
If Muhyiddin refuses, the best move is to reconvene Parliament next week so that the prime minister's support in the Lower House can be put to the test, in which if he fails should spell the end of the road for him and his government.
A new and more stable government must take up the reins and arrest the country’s head-long plunge to catastrophe. – The Vibes, July 10, 2021
M. Kula Segaran is the MP for Ipoh Barat, Perak
