Our Yang di-Pertuan Agong is trying his best to come to a fair and just decision. It is an onerous task.
He had already met the two prime ministers-in-waiting. A serious discussion would have taken place - but, unfortunately, no decision could be made.
The Agong is now going to meet all the 30 elected BN MPs to determine which of the two claimants has the most appeal to form the next government. This is a tedious responsibility, taking too much of His Majesty’s time.
From the data available, it is going to be very close. No one group, on its own, can muster the 112 MPs needed to claim a simple majority. It is going to be a very tight race.
With the greatest respect and humility, I would like to propose that we follow the traditional parliamentary convention and appoint the leader whose party has the most seats.
Going by all counts, including the electoral result, PKR president and Pakatan Harapan chief Anwar Ibrahim seems to be the one enjoying the most electoral support and deserves to be considered for appointment as the next PM to lead the country.
When the first parliamentary sitting takes place, a vote of confidence must be tabled. At this session, Anwar can either be confirmed as the duly elected PM or he can be dismissed.
In such a case, Bersatu president and Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairperson Muhyiddin Yassin should bid to be appointed as the next PM. At this stage, Muhyiddin would be accepted as the next person in line to succeed Anwar, though this may not be a requirement.
This is how we should overcome this problem. It would be a democratic solution and would be supported by all and sundry.
Dissension and disputes
While it may be a suggestion to consider that both Harapan and PN form a joint government, this will not fulfil the expressed sentiments of voters who wanted Harapan to be the government.
It may not be prudent to put two opposing sides to govern our beloved country. Any such move will create more dissension and disputes, with the potential to cause instability.
Such a move will not work and any hint of instability may prove detrimental to the value of our ringgit and our desired economic recovery, given the parlous state of our national debt today, compared with our position when Merdeka was achieved.
According to a huge electoral majority of Malaysians, the parliamentary convention is the answer to this present predicament and a solution to bring this to an end.
An ongoing petition urging Anwar to be appointed PM has 267,066 Malaysians supporting it as of now.
I remain confident that, with goodwill on all sides, Malaysia will prevail. - Mkini
P RAMAKRISHNAN is a former president of Aliran, which is cited as Malaysia’s first multi-ethnic reform movement dedicated to justice, freedom and solidarity.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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