MP SPEAKS | DAP condemns the unconstitutional postponement of Parliament as a desperate attempt by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to prevent full accountability and transparency over his failure to handle the Covid-19 pandemic, economic crisis and confrontation with the king with misleading and manipulative tactics to desperately hang on to power following the loss of his Parliamentary majority.
As Malaysians mark the end of the emergency, we count the huge cost of this failed attempt to mask the naked grab for power by PN and Muhyiddin, under the guise of containing the frightening escalation of Covid-19 infections and deaths. On the day the emergency was proclaimed on January 12, there were 3,309 cases and four deaths, with a cumulative 141,533 cases and 559 deaths.
Since then, the cumulative number of cases have surged eight times and the cumulative death toll a shocking 16 times in a short period of six and a half months. On July 31, the daily cases surged to a record high of 17,785 and 165 deaths, with cumulative cases of 1,113,272 and a death toll of 9,004. Clearly, the period during the emergency caused the cases to jump and did not help to make any impact to reduce the number Covid-19 infections and deaths.
And yet the federal government continues to blame the rakyat for not complying with the Covid-19 SOPs, when ministers themselves are the main culprits; policy flip-flops and U-turns that favour big companies to operate more than the small businesses, especially the small medium enterprises; refuses to admit responsibility for delays in vaccine procurement and delivery which could have avoided thousands of deaths; double-standards in the issuance of approval letters for businesses to operate from the ministries and letting political partisanship trump professional expertise in the management of Covid-19 infection.
This exercise of mass deception is so ingrained in the PN government that they have even misled the king and usurped his powers over the revocation of emergency ordinances. The king was so offended that a royal rebuke in the strongest possible terms was publicly delivered against ministers, attorney-general and the government for the first time in history. There was no expression of remorse by the PN government and no apology was offered, much less any willingness to resign for this act of “lese majeste” against the king.
Despite the king commanding that Parliament should decide and debate on the revocation of the emergency ordinances, the parliamentary meeting on Monday has been postponed and Parliament locked down by the prime minister and the Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker Mohamad Rashid Hasnon on the pretext of Covid-19. The speaker, Azhar Azizan Harun, has clearly put on false pretences by deceiving the opposition bloc of MPs when he told a delegation led by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim last Thursday that he wanted Parliament to continue sitting on Monday.
It is ridiculous for the prime minister to lock down Parliament just because of 11 cases of Covid-19 out of 1,183 tests or a positivity rate of 0.9 percent, way below the World Health Organisation’s threshold of 5 percent. When factories are closed because Covid-19 positive cases are detected, the factories reopen after two days and proper sanitisation. Why was sanitisation not done last Friday so that Parliament can reopen on Monday?
Furthermore, when the first screening tests were conducted on July 23 before Parliament met on July 26, there were 53 positive cases out of 1,925 tests or a positivity rate of 2.8 percent and yet Parliament met without any interference on July 26. Why could Parliament meet when the positivity rate is 2.8 percent but not when it is 0.9 percent? Clearly, it is not based on science and data as claimed by Deputy Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, but seeking power and position; not concern over health but over political survival.
Clearly, the prime minister is fearful of Parliament debating the king’s public statement and that a majority of MPs will express full support for the king against the prime minister. Or he is afraid that a majority of MPs will show their loss of confidence in him following the loss of confidence in his leadership by the king. The prime minister may be fearful of Parliamentary meetings but MPs are not.
A majority of the MPs are not afraid to meet despite the Covid-19 scare because the life of the country, our Federal Constitution, our people and the future of the country led by the right leadership that does not lie to both people, and the king, is of more importance. For those MPs who are afraid, they need not come to Parliament, let those who do not fear but fear more for the future of the lives and livelihood of our people to attend Parliament. We shall be there tomorrow in Parliament.
LIM GUAN ENG is Bagan MP and DAP secretary-general.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
