Return people's mandate via confidence vote - PKR MP

 

There is no need to wait until the Covid-19 pandemic is over to return the mandate to the people as it could be done via a vote of confidence on Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, said Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Karim.

He told Malaysiakini that there are confidence and no-confidence motions which are already in the meeting agenda of the Dewan Rakyat session tomorrow. However, they sit at the bottom of the list.

"In a parliamentary democracy convention in the commonwealth which has the same system as the Westminster parliamentary system, every confidence or no-confidence motion submitted by the opposition bloc or the government backbencher must be treated as the government's business.

"And it must become a priority in the meeting agenda because the motion is related to the status and the legitimacy of the prime minister as well as the government," said the PKR MP.

Yesterday, Muhyiddin in his speech at the third Bersatu annual general meeting, said that it is unnecessary for MPs to reject Budget 2021 to pave the way for the 15th general election (GE15) as he actually also wanted to advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to dissolve Parliament.

“But we all know the problem is Covid-19. InsyaAllah, when the Covid-19 pandemic is over, we will hold the general election.

“We will return the mandate to the rakyat and let the rakyat make the decision on which government they want,” said the Bersatu president.

In a separate interview with Free Malaysia Today, Hassan said Muhyiddin's remark on having GE15 only after the pandemic is over is just an excuse.

"Don't burden yourself to think about GE. Just present the confidence vote.

"This will not involve millions of people, just slightly more than 200 lawmakers only," he said.

Hassan stressed that it's not too late for Muhyiddin to bring up a confidence vote, before the third reading of Budget 2021 at the committee level, to resolve the issue of his legitimacy as the prime minister.

He added that Pakatan Harapan has no choice but to use the budget vote as a test to see whether Muhyiddin has the numbers should the confidence, or no-confidence, motion not happen.

The budget vote is a proxy confidence vote for Muhyiddin and is Harapan's only chance to oust the prime minister through the Dewan Rakyat as speaker Azhar Azizan Harun has refused to allow the tabling of no-confidence motions by the opposition. - Mkini