PARLIAMENT | Umno veteran Nazri Abdul Aziz has claimed that the government lost its moral ground to continue being in power after losing a bloc vote yesterday.
Nazri (above) said democratic precedents in the UK dictate that if a government bill is defeated, the right thing to do is to hold fresh polls and get back a mandate from the public.
The government yesterday narrowly failed to pass a bill to extend a provision allowing detention without trial under the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (Sosma). The bill was defeated 84-86.
Speaking in the Dewan Rakyat, Nazri (BN-Padang Rengas) acknowledged Pakatan Harapan's argument that voting against the Sosma bill did not violate the opposition coalition's memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Putrajaya.
However, he said politics is also about perception and in the public's eye, the government which is supposed to have a majority had lost in a vote - and the reason why was irrelevant.
“The fact is we lost the bill... and to me, the question is the matter of perception, I feel we have no moral ground to be the government.
“So I leave it to my party to decide. They have pushed (for snap polls) and at that time I had resisted, saying we should not have a general election (now) because there is no reason to and we have the MOU.
“But today, I have no moral ground to stand here (in Parliament), and say that we need not dissolve (Parliament) and have a general election,” he added.
Nazri had previously spoken out sternly against snap polls, saying Umno would be putting its own interest before the public.
He does not plan to contest in the 15th general election.
Not a confidence vote - Loke
Nazri’s view that the government losing a bill was tantamount to losing the confidence of the House is debatable.
Anthony Loke (Harapan-Seremban) argued that the Sosma bill was not a vote of confidence, and had assured the coalition’s support for a constitutional amendment today.
Likewise, parliamentary observer Ong Ooi Heng said losing the Sosma bill doesn’t mean the government is facing a crisis of collapse since it’s just a normal government motion.
Ong explained, according to the convention of the Westminster system, only when a motion of confidence or supply bill fails to pass shall it mean that the government had lost majority support in Parliament.
Hence, there is no need for the minister or the prime minister to resign over the incident. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.