Mahathir: Prime Minister without majority must resign

The people who can do something about the Prime Minister have shamelessly admitted receiving money from him by the millions.

KUALA LUMPUR: Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, taking to his blog in his latest posting, warned that the Speaker was ignoring the Federal Constitution if he takes it upon himself not to allow a no confidence motion to be tabled in Parliament against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

“The people who can do something about the Prime Minister are totally without shame. They have openly admitted receiving money from him by the millions. This is corruption at its worst and something that shames the country in the eyes of the world.”

Again, if Parliamentary standing orders are silent on such a provision, it does not mean that Speaker Pandikar Amin Haji Mulia can take it upon himself to interpret them in such a way as to give himself the power to deny the tabling of a no confidence motion by rejecting the right of MPs to do so.

“A vote of no confidence is totally democratic. Parliament may not have any provision for it but the Federal Constitution, the Supreme Law of the Land, clearly states that if the Prime Minister no longer commands the support of the majority of MPs, he should resign,” said Mahathir.

Article 43(4) of the Federal Constitution states, he added, that “if the Prime Minister ceases to command the confidence of the majority of the members of the House of Representatives, then, unless at his request the Yang Di Pertuan Agong dissolves Parliament, the Prime Minister shall tender the resignation of the Cabinet”.

The former Prime Minister was commenting on a report he read that the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat will not allow a motion of no confidence to be tabled in the Dewan by anyone. “He insists that only he can decide whether such a motion can be put before the house or not,” noted Mahathir. “The reason he says is that Parliamentary standing orders are silent on this matter.”

“Also, his excuse is that it has never been done before.”

Mahathir, in pointing out that there was always a first time, conceded that it has never been done before because there had never been before an occasion to allow for the introduction of a no confidence motion. “None of the previous Prime Ministers had borrowed RM42 billion at high cost to set up a development fund which became involved in shady deals.”

“None of them had invested one billion USD in dubious joint-venture projects with dubious Arab companies or any other dubious companies.”

In continuing to tear into the Prime Minister, Mahathir stressed that none of the previous Prime Ministers had dissolved a joint-venture six months after its formation and converted the capital from the government side (1MDB) into a loan for a partner with which it shouldn’t be in joint-venture.

As if all these were not bad enough, no Prime Minister had ever been in a situation where he had to dismantle the institutions investigating the origins and whereabouts of all these monies, said Mahathir.

Mahathir, continuing, said that Najib other than saying that 1MDB assets were more than the RM42 billion borrowed, cannot prove where the money (assets) was. “The assets are actually government land which Najib had allowed 1MDB to acquire at ridiculously low prices, and then revalued them 500 times or more.”