Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Thursday, 1st April 2021
Pakatan Harapan should focus on the 15th General Election and not obsessed with the numbers game as to who can win the majority in Parliament to become Prime Minister.
I fully agree with Parliamentary Opposition Leader and head of Pakatan Harapan Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim that Pakatan Harapan should focus on the 15th General Election and not obsessed with the numbers game as to who can win the majority in Parliament to become Prime Minister.
When visiting the “Malaysian Dream” Theatre Impian in Bukit Jalil in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, Anwar said Pakatan Harapan should be moving forwards, strengthen the idealism of the people and focus on getting the machinery ready for the battlefield in the next general election to champion the aspirations of the people.
Malaysia is in a very extraordinary situation where the Prime Minister does not enjoy the confidence of the majority of Members of Parliament, and that is why Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin refused to advise the Yang di Pertuan Agong to convene Parliament and why he does not want the Emergency, purportedly to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, to end.
We may have reached a political situation where it is not easy to find a person who can command the absolute majority of MPs in Parliament.
Muhyiddin has said that emergency would end on August 1 to be followed by the holding of the 15th General Election.
But from the look of the shape of things to come, neither the emergency will be ended on August 1 nor will the 15th General Election be held in the third or fourth quarter of the year.
Muhyiddin is intoxicated with absolute powers without parliamentary scrutiny or check, which is the reason for latest Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance conferring absolute powers on the Prime Minister to enact supplementary supply bills without parliamentary scrutiny or check, although the Emergency Proclamation ends on August 1 in four months’ time.
I agree with Anwar that there is no reason for the new emergency ordinance that allows federal government to pass supplementary budgets without legislative scrutiny, which is most unethical, irresponsible and undemocratic.
The Budget 2021 which passed four months ago already allocated sufficient funds for the country’s Covid-19 response.
If valid additional spending is needed, then Muhyiddin should advise the Yang di Pertuan Agong to convene Parliament as the Yang di Pertuan Agong has declared that Parliament can be convened in an emergency.
Furthermore, any valid additional spending to combat the Covid-19 pandemic will get the unanimous support of Parliament, as all MPs from all political parties would like to see the Covid-19 pandemic ended as early as possible.
In fact, I had been calling for the convening of Parliament to spearhead a national mobilisation effort for an “all-of-government” and “whole-of-society” strategy and approach to bring the Covid-19 pandemic under control so as to restore normalcy and initiate efforts at economic recovery in the fourth quarter of the year.
It is ironic that while Parliament is suspended, and emergency declared, to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, we are one of the worst performing nations in Asia in the combat against the Covid-19 pandemic – having the longest Covid-19 waves in the world with the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia entering its eighth month since the Sabah State general election in September last year.
Yesterday’s report of the daily increase of 1,133 new Covid-19 cases, despite a dip to triple-digit daily increase of new Covid-19 cases the previous day, is evidence that Malaysia is still struggling to bring the third Covid wave under control in double-digit figures.
Will the Muhyiddin government be able to bring the third Covid-19 wave under control by August 1, or will there be a fourth wave to justify the continuation of the emergency proclamation?
The backdoor and illegitimate nature of the present regime has made it very intolerant of democratic practices and norms, which is one reason for the egregious violation of the unanimous parliamentary mandate to confer the right to vote on Malaysians above the age of 18 in the next general election and why the constitutional amendment is being sabotaged.
Can Muhyiddin explain why 50 years ago, United Kingdom can execute the parliamentary mandate to confer the right to vote to those 18 years and above within a year of the law being given the Royal Assent but why50 years later, Malaysia needs more than three years to implement such a measure? This is kakistocracy at its worst!
