'Focus on Covid-19, since opposition doesn't have alternative PM candidate'

 

Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin has urged Malaysians to focus on the nation's Covid-19 response instead of demanding for the Dewan Rakyat sitting to be brought forward.

In a statement today, Zuraida said the opposition cannot agree on an alternative PM candidate, therefore, the government should be allowed to carry on and fulfil its mandate to the rakyat, handle the Covid-19 pandemic and save the economy.

"The people are quite fed up with this continuous politicking and the opposition's endless noisemaking on the numbers, majority, etc. It sometimes seems like nothing else matters to them.

"They keep insisting that the prime minister has purportedly lost his majority, but yet no one from the opposition can agree to a single candidate.

"That reflects the in-fighting, disunity and bickering of the opposition bloc itself," said Zuraida.

She added that critics would better serve the country by providing constructive ideas and suggestions instead of jostling for power.

She was responding to calls for the Dewan Rakyat to meet ahead of the scheduled Sept 6 sitting.

Zuraida said there was no need to do so because a date had already been set and Parliament was still under quarantine due to an outbreak during the previous special Dewan Rakyat session.

"In fact, yesterday we received the tragic news of the death of one person who died after being infected from the Parliament cluster," she said.

The opposition has demanded that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin test his majority in the Dewan Rakyat as soon as possible following his loss of Umno's support.

At the time of writing, it is certain that at least 15 Umno MPs had withdrawn support for Umno. All else being equal, this development meant that Muhyiddin only has the support of 100 MPs - 11 short of a simple majority.

Under Article 43 of the Federal Constitution, the prime minister has to resign if he or she no longer commands majority support, unless the Yang di-Pertuan Agong agrees to dissolve Parliament. - Mkini