No more excuses to extend emergency, say analysts

 

Sarawak’s state elections are due this year but have been postponed indefinitely. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: The recent surge in Covid-19 cases, coupled with the sluggish economy, has deprived Putrajaya of any more excuses to extend the state of emergency, according to political analysts.

They also urged the government not to use the Sarawak state elections as an excuse to prolong the state of emergency.

Analyst Azmi Hassan said the rakyat were told that the emergency would end in August and “they are now waiting for that. But with the Sarawak state elections coming this year, the government may use it as an excuse to advise the King to extend the state of emergency.

“But this can be curtailed if the King declares an emergency in a particular area.”

Azmi Hassan.

Political analyst Kenneth Cheng said that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had sought to declare a state of emergency in January to deal with the Covid-19 crisis, but Covid-19 numbers had kept rising.

“The government may have run out of excuses to extend the emergency,” he told FMT.

Cheng, who is a member of Agora Society, a loose network of intellectuals, said the government has failed to deliver on its side of the bargain, with a record high Covid-19 infections at the end of May.

Kenneth Cheng.

Commenting on a scheduled meeting of the Malay Rulers on June 16, Cheng said that past statements had shown that the royalty are keen on restoring parliamentary democracy without imposing an emergency.

He said Parliament should be recovened in September as Covid-19 numbers would have fallen sharply by then.

Oh Ei Sun, a fellow with the Singapore Institute of International Studies, said as long as a state of emergency was in force, Muhyiddin could continue to rule even as a minority government.

Oh Ei Sun.

“Without an emergency, he must step down or call for elections,” he told FMT.

He said the King may be unlikely to give consent for a general election in the midst of the pandemic.

“This is why it is imperative to end the emergency soonest, to restore the healthy functioning of a parliamentary democracy,” said Oh.

“The popular sentiment is against extension of the emergency and to reconvene Parliament even under an emergency,” he said. - FMT