YOURSAY | ‘The king has said Parliament can sit. But PM did not act on this advice.’

COMMENT | When politicians fail, we can only turn to the king

OCT: For the rakyat, it's very clear that no one is in charge. The one person in charge, who happened to be the PM (prime minister), has been very quiet about the current pandemic but very active and vocal on a foreign conflict which has no impact on our sovereignty.

The PM is out of sync with time and local needs. His ministers are good at giving confused SOPs (standard operating procedures) and doing flip-flops now and then on the SOPs.

If Parliament is open, the PM and his ministers cannot face the truth as the opposition will be asking difficult questions which will be embarrassing to them. No Parliament means no difficult questions to answer. Simple as that.

In addition, no questions on procurements and dubious spending. The PM and his senior ministers prefer to travel to Middle East to secure investments, which apparently is for them to also perform umrah.

The PM knows opening Parliament is under his control. Former law minister Zaid Ibrahim, PM will not listen to your reasoning as it's not pleasant to his ears.

The PM is good at playing dumb and dumber. See nothing, hear nothing and do nothing. That roughly sums up the state of affairs in Malaysia.

FairMalaysian: Our Federal Constitution is mired in a number of knots which need to be untangled.

"When politicians fail, we can only turn to the king," said Zaid.

That doesn't seem to have worked. Would turning to the king resolve problems? The 1MDB petition to the then king with some one million signatures did not achieve the desired results.

Look at the pre-set predicament. The king declared the emergency on the advice of the PM. He had then clarified that Parliament can still convene on the advice of the PM. But the PM has not budged at all.

So, where does this leave the people and the elected representatives who represent them? You see how the Federal Constitution is such a lame document. With this kind of ambiguity, what kind of democracy is this? We are on a slippery road to nowhere, isn't it?

Ian2003: Zaid, you should leave the king out of politics. We are a democratic country where the people are supposed to govern the people and not the king.

With due respect, the king is just a keeper of good governance where he may reject unsound policies (which fortunately or unfortunately, has been revoked by Dr Mahathir Mohamad), and he should not interfere with the governance of the country.

People need to wise up to vote for the right government who can take care of all its citizens, something which irrational voters can't comprehend and continue to support and vote for the government which continues to misused their support. Don't cede the power given to the people back to the monarch.

Cyclonus: The system is truly faulty when the same authority who can declare an emergency and dissolve Parliament is the same authority to reconvene Parliament.

Is our Federal Constitution that defective? Surely, there must be some failsafe that lies with some branch of the government that allows them to act based on the conduct (or lack of) of the executive to bring us out from this limbo.

The Analyser: You have to be irrational beyond delusional to think that reconvening Parliament will change anything. The only benefit might be that a few more politicians would contract Covid-19 and put them off the media for a while.

There is not one iota of evidence to suggest the opposition would be any better at pandemic management than the present team.

The fact that they have never proposed anything beyond the commercialisation of treatment and vaccination indicates exactly where their IQ rests.

Face facts, Malaysia, our politicians truly are the dregs of society.

BrownPhoenix6394: @The Analyser, you are absolutely delusional to think that we should not reconvene Parliament.

Bazaars can open and factories can continue to operate, but Parliament cannot reconvene? What sort of logic is this? Parliament should meet immediately and let there be checks and balances.

It’s no wonder this country is in its current state with people of your ilk and mentality.

Anon25: Zaid gave another piece of sage advice. Yes, it is true that our king has said that there is no reason why Parliament cannot sit. People have forgotten that because the PM did not act on this advice.

All His Majesty has to do is summon the PM to the palace. To remind him. And it will happen.

Your other idea may be more arduous. Penang and Selangor are in opposition hands. They can test what Zaid says by convening their state assemblies. But will the MB and the governor agree?

Instead of a confrontational approach, it may be better for a ‘rombongan’ (delegation) of opposition leaders to seek an audience with the king. Please take Zaid along to explain the law.

Hrrmph: "It is in the happiness of the people lies the happiness of the ruler."

A man 2,500 years ago possessed this wisdom. Yet, with all the knowledge and development acquired since then, the members of this government are unable to understand this.

They do not understand moral legitimacy, only that their ego and selfish needs must be pandered to and preserved, no matter what.

Hang Babeuf: The heart of the matter: "A ruler cannot reign by military power or legal authority, but only by moral legitimacy."

Falcon: My learned friend and comrade, would it be incorrect to say that we lost both moral and political legitimacy many seasons ago?

All that is left is hypocrisy, double standards, double-talk and a betrayal of trust, with the 'sapu semua' VVIPs and others laughing all the way to the bank.

May the Almighty protect and sustain us all in these very dark days.

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