ADUN SPEAKS | The position in the UK seems to be that if a sitting prime minister loses the motion of confidence he has to seek dissolution of Parliament from the Queen. This equation does not seem to be the case in Malaysia.

The most recent illustration for that British convention was the defeat of a motion on the Maastricht Treaty tabled by then prime minister John Major in 1992. For the record, the successor of MargaretThatcher was opposed by some of his own MPs on the issue.