Holding on to power at the expense of democracy

Earlier this week, it was reported that the Dewan Rakyat proceedings on May 18 will end immediately after the Yang di-Pertuan Agong delivers the royal address with no debate scheduled for the remainder of the day.

Already, the one-day sitting has been heavily criticised. Yet, earlier, even though Parliament was scheduled to sit for only one day, at least there were going to be debates after the royal address.

Just a few days before the latest announcement, Minister in Prime Minister’s Department Takiyuddin Hassan had gone on record to say that there would be motions tabled and at least one bill would be tabled for its first reading.

All these government businesses are now off the table for May 18. So, too, will be the motion of no-confidence submitted by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had amended the order of the Parliament sitting by citing the Covid-19 pandemic as the reason for the shortened session.

But many believe that the real reason is that the government, and especially Muhyiddin, is not confident of the support from the majority of the members of Parliament.

From the very beginning of his premiership, Muhyiddin had been asked to "show his numbers" to prove that he indeed commands the majority support of MPs. The argument was that he had misrepresented his support to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to assume power.

The May 18 parliamentary sitting was the opportunity to finally put this question which has dogged his premiership to rest.

Muhyiddin Yassin

There are ways and means for the government to avoid a backbencher’s motion. But they are not taking any chances and will not allow for any debate. Since the PM has taken this course of action, it would be safe to assume that he does not have that majority support.

The last time Parliament sat was in December. Originally, Parliament was scheduled to meet in March but this was postponed after the change in government earlier this year. 

With the recent developments, Parliament will only have a full session in July 2020, some seven months after its last sitting.

Many things have happened and many things will happen between December 2019 and July this year. Not least the Covid-19 crisis that we are currently facing. There is no legislative check-and-balance to the government’s measures to deal with the global pandemic.

There will be no debate on the government’s delivery of the Prihatin stimulus package until July. Nor will there be a debate on the economic impact of the movement control order and its subsequent iterations until then.

Government ministers have said that the government will table Covid-19 bills for the benefit of the people but any such bill can only be tabled in July and can only pass when the Senate sits in September. What is the use of temporary measures if they can only come into force in September or October?

But of course, the government does not seem to be too concerned about all this. Its primary concern, it appears, is to ensure that it clings on to power for as long as it can at the expense of democracy and the people. 

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SYAHREDZAN JOHAN is a civil liberties lawyer and political secretary to Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang. - Mkini