This is bribery on national TV, say opposition MPs

 

Opposition MPs like PKR’s Fahmi Fadzil, Warisan’s Darell Leiking and DAP’s Steven Sim say Muhyiddin Yassin has only two options: resign or advise the King to dissolve Parliament.

PETALING JAYA: If Muhyiddin Yassin thought that his offer of “bipartisan political cooperation” would cool things politically, he was wrong.

Instead, opposition MPs rushed to hit out at him, with PKR’s Fahmi Fadzil decrying the prime minister’s address as essentially “bribery on national TV”.

Speaking to FMT, the PKR communications director said Muhyiddin had practically admitted that he had lost his majority support and was not in a position “to offer anything to anyone”.

“Article 43(4) of the Federal Constitution is extremely clear that once the prime minister has lost his majority, he has two options: resign, or advise the King to dissolve Parliament.

“What he’s done is not in line with the Constitution because he is in no position to decide on behalf of the King who has the majority. His brazen statement ignores the King’s authority, function and powers as vested in the Federal Constitution.

“In the words of (Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker) Azalina Othman Said, this is a dollar short and a day late,” he said.

Warisan deputy president Darell Leiking also slammed the prime minister’s offer, describing his speech on TV as “Live: Bribery and Scheme of Things 2.0”.

“Somehow also reminiscent of ‘You help me, I help you’ in the 2010 Sibu by-election,” he said in a Twitter post.

Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim rejected Muhyiddin’s excuse that he could not allow the “kleptocrats” back in power, a term often used by the opposition against former prime minister Najib Razak.

“They usurped power and ruled for more than a year, causing untold suffering and death with the help of so-called kleptocrats, and now they want to be heroes to keep us away from the kleptocrats?” he asked.

He also questioned if the “No DAP” tagline often touted was now no longer relevant since the government was offering the bipartisan deal to his party too.

Kepong MP Lim Lip Eng disagreed strongly with Muhyiddin’s proposal and reiterated his call for the prime minister to step down, saying: “I reject your carrot and stick approach. Please resign!”

Meanwhile, Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh said she still had an issue with the Perikatan Nasional government’s Cabinet despite the prime minister’s olive branch offer.

“Their Cabinet of ministers has led Malaysia to where we are today. Today’s speech does not address that incompetency and changes nothing in helping Malaysia out of the current mess,” she said on Twitter. - FMT