BEST WAY TO KICK OUT NAJIB & ROSMAH: THE OPPOSITION MUST RESIGN EN-BLOC, LET THE AGONG DECIDE

Political analyst Wong Chin Huat’s comments about voting down the national budget are an interesting read.

This is well within the rights of the lawmakers in a democratic nation - in short, they can either boycott the national budget or vote against it.

In the current political stalemate, any possibility is worth considering and can be put to the test, especially since Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has refused to step down amidst the 1MDB scandal that has put a strain on our country’s economy.

Both the free falling ringgit against the US dollars and investors’ confidence have been affected since the 1MDB scandal was exposed by The Wall Street Journal.

The Conference of Malay Rulers, too, has raised the concerns about the status of the investigations being carried out on the 1MDB, yet Najib is unperturbed by the royal decree.

As rightly pointed out by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, they rulers are not “just rubber stamps to validate all the acts of their governments."

Another possible solution

Apart from Wong’s suggestion to vote down the national budget, the opposition and BN ‘rebels’ can and should consider resigning en bloc.

This is well within the democratic rights of the lawmakers. They can jointly issue a press statement to tell the nation why they are deciding to resign en bloc.

With over half the lawmakers resigning at the same time, it would send a tremor across the nation. News would hit the front pages of both the national and international media.

In my opinion, this, like the collection of statutory declarations, is tantamount to a vote of no-confidence for Najib.

With this, the Agong will have the option of either asking Najib to resign, or His Majesty would have no choice but to dissolve the Parliament and call a fresh election to seek a new mandate.

This is how far Najib’s power can go - or rather, not that far! If he steps down, under Article 43 (3), the Agong can pick someone whom he believes has the confidence of the majority.

But, if Najib remained recalcitrant, a fresh election would inevitably have to be called, which could spell defeat for Barisan Nasional. At the instruction of the Agong, the Election Commission would have to call another general election 30 months ahead of time.

As mentioned earlier, perhaps it is time for Umno and BN to lose at least once. Once the new set of lawmakers are in place, they can then realign themselves (whatever that means) and start focusing on re-building the nation.

Eventually Umno leaders would advise Najib to step aside

Meanwhile, Najib should realise that the confidence of the Malay voters towards him has already dipped. This was based on the survey conducted by the Merdeka Centre.

This means that in the coming general election, BN will run the risk of losing if Najib were to lead the ruling coalition into the 14th general election. This is how eventually Umno division leaders themselves would advise Najib to step aside.

After all, by remaining as the prime minister, Najib would become a liability to both Umno and BN. They would have him resign instead of causing further damage.

Perhaps, this is an alternative to Wong’s suggestion? No? - M'kini