Agong's alleged confidence vote U-turn 'hearsay' until decree issued - critics

 

De facto law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar’s remarks about the Yang di-Pertuan Agong consenting for Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob not to undergo a confidence vote in Parliament cannot be accepted as it is merely “hearsay”.

Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Abdul Karim said if that had been said in the courts, such a statement would not have been accepted by the judiciary.

“The legitimacy of Wan Junaidi’s (above) statement is in question because he did not hear for himself what the Agong supposedly said. Instead, Wan Junaidi only heard it from Ismail Sabri.

“Ismail Sabri is someone who has a conflict of interest when it comes to the question of a vote of confidence in the Dewan Rakyat because the proceedings of the vote will be to test the confidence towards him as the prime minister,” Hassan said in a statement today.

He reminded again that it was the Agong himself who decreed on Aug 18 in an official statement from the Istana Negara that the new prime minister must undergo a vote of confidence as soon as possible in the Dean Rakyat.

In administrative law, any new decree from the king has to be in the written form and informed to the public through an official media statement from the Istana Negara, he said, and not from the prime minister or Wan Junaidi.

“The good name of the Agong must be preserved by our current prime minister. Ismail Sabri may be comfortable making U-turns… but the effect will be very bad on the institution of the Agong if His Majesty is seen by the rakyat to have made a U-turn,” Hassan said.

Lawyer Haniff Khatri Abdulla also shared similar sentiments as Hassan, describing Wan Junaidi’s statement as “double hearsay”.

“This is because what that statement means is: Wan Junaidi is telling the public what Ismail Sabri supposedly was told by the Agong.

“Why doesn’t Ismail Sabri himself release this statement? Why aren’t there any official Istana Negara statement about this?” he said, pointing again to the Aug 18 statement as an example.

As such, he said Ismail Sabri and his administration need to be more careful when handling issues related to a decree from the Agong.

According to convention as well as the spirit of the Federal Constitution, as long as there are no official statements from the Istana Negara about this matter, the Agong’s decree from Aug 18 for Ismail Sabri to undergo a vote of confidence is still valid, Haniff said.

Earlier today, Wan Junaidi was reported saying cabinet members had been informed in the weekly cabinet meeting that the Agong had consented for Ismail Sabri not to undergo the confidence vote. - Mkini