Of The King's Powers, Of The Federal Constitution, Of Reopening Parliament, Of This and That bla bla bla..

 As a young teen in the 1970s I watched Robin Williams in the American sit-com 'Mork and Mindy'. Mork (Robin Williams) was an alien from the planet Ork who has come to earth. So Mork will say things like 'the pigeons in the park have trained human beings to give them food. Each time the pigeons bob their heads up and down, the humans give them food.'  It is just another way of looking at the world around you. From a different angle.

Mork and Mindy

So folks imagine a situation involving the entire human race where at any point in time, upon hearing a voice say something, the entire human race stops in its tracks and touches its ears for 10 minutes.  Wouldnt that be a spectacle?  It would have to be a very compelling voice.

Some of you may be wondering, "Why does this OutSyed The Box fellow speak like this all the time?" 

Well folks, other than watching 'Mork and Mindy', I read a lot as a young person. Reading was my hobby. It still is. For years and years I read two to three books a week. Almost all of them were non fiction. And all in English. It is all about gathering information. The more information you gather the better informed you are. And the better you can process the information. 

Today information can be gathered not just by reading books but through the Internet. Reading is still the best but watching good YouTube videos with good voice presentation can be an education by itself. Name it and you can find it on YouTube.  

But regardless of whether you are reading, listening, watching YouTube etc two people can be given the same information (for example about 20,000 people will be reading this blog post today) but each person will process the information differently. 

If the information is beneficial and it helps us achieve something really useful in our lives then that information becomes knowledge. (Believing in fairies is not useful knowledge. Therefore in a "fairy" believing society, know-ing that there are no fairies will be useful know-ledge, for living and surviving in that society). 

If the information is of no benefit to you then it remains just that - information. It does not become knowledge. 

But be very, very  careful.  A lot of information simply cannot become useful knowledge.  Because they do not contain knowledge. It is just information with no benefit. Useless information. Like a mindless message on those roadside billboards zipping by when you are travelling at 110 km/hr down the highway.  You cannot catch what information the billboard is trying to project - even if you slowed down.

Dont bother slowing down.

So we come to all the talk about the King's powers, the Federal Constitution, the reopening of Parliament bla bla. 

Well these are 'man made' books. We wrote down these things with our own hands. The Federal Constitution, the Laws of Malaysia,  about the convening or dissolution or suspension of Parliament, the powers of the Executive, the powers of the King, the Judidicary etc.  

So what? We wrote the rules with our own hands.  If we do not like them anymore we can always rewrite these rules, laws and regulations. 

But folks, the thing is the laws and the Federal Constitution still work. And quite well.

But those who find it in their interests to say that the cat is white/black will insist the cat is white/black. Even when the cat is not white/black. It is called manipulation. It is not interpretation.  

But if we want to be clearer then lets just rewrite the Federal Constitution, lets rewrite the Malaysian Laws to make things even clearer. Lets spell it out. 

Here is my OutSyed The Box suggestion. From my personal knowledge and experience of books and "Codes of Conduct", it is much, much better to just abolish some rules and laws. Then there is no more  danger of interpretation, misinterpretation and/or manipulation.

Because you CANNOT interpret or manipulate something that is NOT WRITTEN DOWN IN THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION.  If it is NOT THERE, then it is not there.

Here is another example "Islam is the religion of the Federation - Article 3(1), 1957"

What exactly does this mean? No one can say for sure. It is up for endless debate. It has been endlessly interpreted, misinterpreted and manipulated. 

Here is a question - what if this Article 3(1), 1957 was not put into the Malaysian Federal Constituion in 1957. 

What would have happened? Or what would NOT have happened? For certain there would NOT BE any endless debate, interpretation, misinterpretation or manipulation by anyone. WHY NOT? Because the clause WOULD NOT BE THERE.

This is what I mean - the moment you write something down it will become subject to endless debate and interpretation. But if it is NOT written down, then there cannot be interpretation and manipulation.

But we do need to write things down. We need rules. We need laws. We must write these things down.  But we must write things down in a clear manner where there is no room for debate, no room for interpretation, no room for manipulation.  

That means we must be scientific, precise and mathematical.

For example whoever commands "the support of the majority Members of Parliament shall be Prime Minister".  A simple and scientific statement. 

There are 222 MPs in our Parliament. Well I believe one has died and, according to our Law, there are no more By Elections allowed (because the GE is less than three years away9??) So there are 221 MPs now.

So whoever has 111 MPs on one side shall be the Prime Minister. 

So just show the world that you have at least 111 MPs on your side. 

Ok I agree that Parliament has been suspended. 

But you still have Facebook, Zoom, Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp etc. 

Just get your 111 MPs and put them into the WhatsApp groups and say 'Here we are. We have 111 MPs on our side. So we deserve to form the government'.

End of story.

Here is a more dramatic suggestion. When Parliament re-convenes gather your simple majority of 111 MPs, gather them in the Lobby of the Parliament. Do not go into the Dewan. But remain outside in the Lobby. Then tell the world that you have your simple majority. That there is a minority inside the Dewan. The Government will have to throw in the towel. 

Ok folks - the next question - for the Members of Parliament who think they have the 111 MPs on their side. How long should it take for you to do this? 

Here is the answer : it should take the same amount of time you need to scratch your ass. Because you have been talking about this for the past year.   And you still cannot show conclusively that you have 111 MPs on your side. 

So far there have been TWO failed attempts. Attempt no. 1 was in last October 2020 where there was an opportunity to topple the government by voting against the Budget. You failed. The Budget was approved in Parliament.

Then No. 2 there was that 'I have the convincing numbers' episode. That came to nothing as well.

And since then, there have been THREE MORE frog-jumpings in Parliament.  Do you have 111 MPs? So please do count your frogs carefully.   

Frog-zilla

And please set a cut off date.  Ok latest by August 7th, 2021. One week after the end of the present Emergency.

If you cannot prove you have a simple majority, then please go back to scratching your ass. Thank you.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.