Next PM must table vote of confidence, says Leong

 

Selayang MP William Leong says Muhyiddin Yassin’s administration used ‘every trick in the book’ to avoid a motion of confidence, such as suspending parliamentary sittings.

PETALING JAYA: The next prime minister must table a motion of confidence immediately after his appointment by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, says Selayang MP William Leong.

He said the vote will serve to confirm the King’s judgment and provide legitimacy to the new prime minister to govern.

Leong said caretaker prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s administration used “every trick in the book” to avoid a motion of confidence, such as suspending parliamentary sittings and declaring a public health emergency.

It was during this time, he said, that elected representatives could not monitor the government’s management of the pandemic and economic crises.

William Leong.

“We will never know the costs for this game of avoiding a motion of confidence – how many of the 1.4 million positive cases and 12,510 deaths could have been avoided, how many of the businesses closed and thousands of jobs lost could have been saved. This must not happen again,” he said in a statement today.

Noting that cabinet collective responsibility was a constitutional convention, Leong said none of the ministers in Muhyiddin’s cabinet were qualified to become the prime minister.

“It will make a mockery of Malaysian parliamentary democracy if a minister in a failed cabinet is appointed as the next prime minister,” he said..

“Malaysians have already suffered the humiliation of the seventh prime minister resigning with the intention of being appointed as the eighth prime minister. Please spare Malaysians from further embarrassment.”

He said that for the sake of the country’s stability and democracy, all party leaders should accept the results of the 14th general election, adding that the people’s mandate for Pakatan Harapan (PH) to rule for five years must be respected.

“The democratic norm of accepting election results means that PH should be allowed to govern for what is left of its term. This should be done. Not for the sake of PH but for the sake of recognising the people’s mandate, for the country and for the sake of Malaysia’s democracy.” - FMT