Government falls when PM resigns, says ex-judge

Muhyiddin Yassin could be forced out and replaced by Ismail Sabri Yaakob as acting prime minister and Hishammuddin Hussein as his deputy, according to Parit Buntar MP Mujahid Yusof Rawa.

PETALING JAYA: The entire government falls when the prime minister resigns from office, as held by court rulings, a retired judge says.

Gopal Sri Ram said this was decided in the 1995 High Court ruling in the case of Amir Kahar Tun Datu Mustapha v Mohd Said Keruak (then the Sabah governor).

In that case, Sabah chief minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan had resigned from office but Amir Kahar, who was a deputy chief minister, would not relinquish his position although a new chief minister had been appointed.

“The court held that the cabinet goes along with the chief minister (head of government),” Sri Ram said, adding that this legal principle was affirmed by the Federal Court in the Perak case in 2010.

He was responding to Parit Buntar MP Mujahid Yusof Rawa’s statement yesterday that Muhyiddin Yassin would be pushed to resign “in the next day or two” after Umno withdraws its support for him as prime minister.

Then, he said, Ismail Sabri Yaakob would be the acting prime minister and possibly appointed the interim prime minister, while new senior minister Hishammuddin Hussein would be his deputy.

Sri Ram said that in accordance with Article 43 (2) (a), the Yang di-Pertuan Agong would have to appoint a new prime minister, who in his judgement was likely to command the confidence of the majority in the Dewan Rakyat.

“Under this provision, if the prime minister requests a dissolution of Parliament and the King declines, then the prime minister has to resign with his Cabinet as stated in Article 43 (4),” he said.

Sri Ram said as such there was no provision for an acting prime minister when the prime minister resigned.

He said then deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim was appointed acting prime minister in 1997 when Dr Mahathir Mohamad took a two-month holiday.

He said that in 1973, senior minister V T Sambanthan was acting prime minister for a couple of days when then deputy prime minister and acting prime minister Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman died.

Sri Ram said at that time prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein was in Ottawa, Canada attending the Commonwealth summit.

“Someone can act in that position when the prime minister is overseas,” he said.

He said the Constitution also had no provision for an interim prime minister.

“By convention, we only have a caretaker prime minister or government from the time parliament is dissolved until the election results show which party or coalition has the majority to form the next government,” he added. - FMT