"The Sequence" will kick in. It always does.

 

BERSIH has made a Press Release. Here is their Press Release. My comments in blue.

Press Release from BERSIH
17 December 2022

'Coalition Government Agreement' Is A Good Precedent But Parliament Must Be Empowered

The Coalition for Clean and Fair Election (BERSIH) hails the coalition government agreement ("Perjanjian Persefahaman Kerjasama") as a refreshing precedent necessary to stabilize Politics in hung parliament but also expresses concerns that some of its intentions may weaken Parliament.

(OSTB : That last part of the sentence contradicts the exuberance of the earlier part. 'refreshing' versus 'may weaken Parliament' all in one sentence. Verbal gymnastics?)

Government of Parties

BERSIH stresses that the two previous governments, under Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri, were 'governments formed by individual MPs' and not 'coalition government formed by parties', hence could not be sustained under pressure from partners in coalition government. The 'Malaysian Unity Government' led by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim may now escape this trap and serve a five year full term.

(OSTB : I would not be too sure of a full five year term. 'formed by individual MPs' is the Westminster model that is followed by so many countries around the world. And our Federal Constitution says 'a member who commands majority support of the House' shall be prime minister and form the government. This refers to MPs and not parties. Besides there are independent MPs who do not belong to any party).

Thirty three months of political chaos since the Sheraton Move was caused by the flawed practice of treating government as an adhoc collection of parliamentarians, bound not by a cohesive government programme set by parties, but by the parliamentarians' personal allegiance to a Prime ministerial candidate and even deals in cabinet and GLC jobs or impunity from Court cases, all made possible by the flawed practice of 'government formation by Statutory Declarations' poisonously introduced since 2009.

(OSTB : This is hypocrisy lah BERSIH. The same thing has happened now. A fellow facing 47 criminal corruption charges is the DPM. What the duck is that?  Now he has re-appointed his buddy as Chairman of a GLC.)

Party-based negotiation in government formation and making coalition agreement public are two of the 10 proposals to stabilise post-GE15 politics made by Bersih on 19 November, and Bersih is very pleased that the new government is taking the right steps.

BERSIH is concerned on how the coalition government agreement curtails the free will of parliamentarians in voting and holds that any compromise made must be limited to what is necessary to not result in dangerous executive dominance in our attempt to escape political instability and unaccountability.

(OSTB : This contradicts BERSIH's entire Press Release.  curtails the free will of parliamentarian, dangerous executive dominance. What you are saying is there is no more democracy. This is dictatorship via Parliament).

Party-based Decision on Confidence and Supply

To prevent confidence and supply votes being turned into an alternative form of 'SD auctioning', BERSIH finds it acceptable at this stage of Malaysia's democratisation that  voting decision is made party-based.

(OSTB : Just after warning of curtails free will of parliamentarians, dangerous executive dominance  you find it acceptable again? World champion verbal gymnastics?) 

BERSIH nevertheless refutes misinterpretation ?? that the MOU itself can in itself cause all of the 144 MP from the five government blocs (PH, BN, GPS, GRS and Warisan) to face by-election if they defy their party's instruction.

Point 4(a) of the Coalition Government Agreement only expresses its intention that all the five parties must support Prime Minister on matters of confidence, supply or any procedure that may constitutionally affect the government's legitimacy.

Point 4(b) go on to express another intention that the parties must make sure that their MPs who refuse, are reluctant or err to vote accordingly will be treated as having resigned or ceased to be a party member, which will cause their seats to be vacant under Article 49A of the Federal  Constitution.

That intention can only become a reality if the parties' constitutions have provided for such failure, reluctance and error in confidence and Supply voting to be a ground of a lawmaker ceasing to be a party member, as in the cases of DAP and Amanah. Alternatively, the parties have to have other legally-binding instruments that can cause the same effect.

BERSIH is deeply alarmed by Point 4(d) which states that "[the parties to the agreement] has the sole prerogative in making sure the Members of Dewan Rakyat to vote on all motions, especially confidence in and supply by the Malaysia Unity Government, based on the parties' respective instruction." Going on "all motions", and not just confidence and supply matters, threatens to remove all autonomy of parliamentarians in voting. With a two-third majority government, that would be a blank cheque to constitutional amendments.

(OSTB : Now you say: 

• deeply alarmed by Point 4(d)
  
• threatens to remove all autonomy
•  would be a blank cheque
  

(OSTB : I am ignoring the rest of BERSIH's Ptress Statement. This is too much bullshit for one Press Release).

My Comments : 

The 1st Pakatan Harapan government did not fall just because of some silly Sheraton Move. The Sheraton Move was the final nail in the coffin for Dr Mahathir's complete bungling up of his 22 months in power. 

Dr Mahathir went back on every single promise that the PH made to the people during the run-up to the GE14 (oops not GE15) election in 2018. He even dismissed the party Manifesto as just a manifesto, not to be taken seriously.

Within a few months after GE14 the Pakatan Harapan became extremely unpopular. And that was when I too decided to break with Dr Mahathir despite knowing him personally since 2000. But more disastrously for Pakatan the people rejected them. The PH lost SEVEN by-elections in a row. The last by-election they lost was in Tanjong Piai in Johor (16 Nov 2019) which was a complete disaster.  

In Tanjong Piai the BN (fielding an MCA candidate) won 25,466 votes, completely thrashing the PH candidate (Bersatu) who won only 10,380 votes.  The BN won 2.5 times as many votes as PH. 

What did it mean? It meant that the PH had lost the plot. The people were rejecting PH - beginning  just over 12 months after defeating the BN at the 14th General Elections in May 2018. 

When the PH (in 2018) lost the peoples' support on such a grand scale, everyone started becoming nervous. Everyone meaning the component parties of the PH at that time, the individual Members of Parliament, the Menteri Besars, the Chief Ministers, the State Assemblymen etc. And they became nervous at their leader and prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed.  Dr Mahathir lost the confidence of his own coalition and of his own party.  That is when all the scheming and plotting against him began. And it ended up with the Sheraton Move.

So the sequence of events is like this (after GE14 and also now after GE15) :

"The Sequence"

1. The new prime minister is elected / manouevred into position. His supporters have high hopes for him. 

2. The new prime minister immediately starts to bungle. He makes wrong policy decisions, makes humongous mistakes, talks out of his @$$ bla bla.

3. The suffering of the people is not only NOT alleviated but it becomes worse. Especially for the Malays and bumiputras.  

(For example the motorcycle riding Food Delivery Army took off AFTER GE14. Food Delivery in Malaysia is a sign of failure because the boys and girls delivering food are often university graduates with no other options in life.  We spent valuable public money sending boys and girls to university for four years so that they can become food delivery workers!! Or nasi lemak sellers!! That is FAILURE).

4. When the By Elections come by (and there will always be By Elections) the new prime minister starts losing By Elections. This is confirmation that the new prime minister does not have the support of the people. This is what happened to Dr Mahathir post 2018.

5. When he loses the support of the people the new prime minister's own party members, his coalition partners, his own MPs, ADUNs will start scheming and plotting against him.  Then they may choose dinner at the Hilton, the Sheraton, the Shangri La etc.

This is 'The Sequence' of events.

Fast forward to today - in comparison to the PH of 2018 (post GE14) the present PH of 2022 (post GE15) has also lost their first By Election. 

Padang Serai was actually a By-Election and the PH got thrashed by the Perikatan Nasional. The PN candidate secured 51,000 votes versus 35,000 votes for PH, a whopping majority of 16,000 votes.

And dont forget your hero won in Tambun by a slim majority of just over 5000 votes. The 32,000 votes that he won are less than half of the votes cast and only about 1/3 of the total registered voters in Tambun.  This means the majority of the voters in Tambun rejected him. If there is a By Election in Tambun say three months down the road he may lose.

Why three months? Because that 54% to 66% electricity tariff hike for medium voltage and high voltage industrial users is going to kill the economy. Prices are going to shoot up again and it will take about 3 months for the inflation to start spiking. 

So the MOU or Coalition Government Agreement or the Anti Hopping Law will NOT help to save you. 

When the prime minister bungles, and when the prime minister starts to bungle so early in the day then "The Sequence" will kick in automatically. This is what happened to Dr Mahathir in 2018.

So far after just 25 days in power there has been bungle after bungle. 

Firing all the chairmen and BODs of the GLCs was a good move but now that same Umno clown has been re-appointed chairman of Felcra. Appointed by the same fellow who is facing 47 charges for corruption in the Courts!!  So it looks like another case of 'my nigger is better than your nigger'.

All this type of behaviour is highly, highly unpopular with the people.

Read again BERSIH's Press Statement above. There is plenty of 'Dislike' in BERSIH's statement.  The bungling has started.

"The Sequence" will kick in.