There is no justification whatsoever for a postponement of Parliament from September 6 to September 13 if the vote of confidence motion on new Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob is not on the parliamentary agenda or order paper. It is clear that Parliament is postponed by one week to accommodate Ismail, who is under home quarantine for being in close contact with a COVID-19 positive patient.
DAP accepts that the new Prime Minister must be in Parliament, when the vote of confidence is being deliberated and decided by Parliament. However, if there is no vote of confidence motion, what is the point or justification for the one week postponement of Parliament? There is simply no alternative or compromise on holding a vote of confidence motion in Parliament, this must proceed.
Appointments of a new Prime Minister in the middle of a Parliament term as a result of a vacancy, requires a vote of confidence to demonstrate that he enjoys majority support of MPs as set out by our Federal Constitution. For Ismail Sabri not to include the motion of vote of confidence in the Parliamentary agenda would be unconstitutional.
Further, on August 18, the Yang di Pertuan Agong had commanded that the new Prime Minister must undergo a confidence vote in the Dewan Rakyat to show he has majority support. Any failure by Ismail to do so would be an open defiance that can be construed as willful and recalcitrant disobedience to the Royal Command, which would be an inauspicious start to his Prime Ministership.
Lest he forget, Ismail should not forget what happened to his predecessor who was seen in a similar light of open disobedience that evoked royal displeasure. DAP does not comprehend why Ismail does not want to table a vote of confidence motion when the King has announced that Ismail has won the support of 114 MPs and is the midst of discussions with the Opposition to focus of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, economic crisis that has destroyed lives and livelihood and undertake institutional reforms to protect our parliamentary democracy.
Unless of course, Ismail Sabri is not confident of full and undivided support from government MPs. DAP strongly reminds Ismail that any failure to table a vote of confidence motion and defy the King’s command, would destroy his credibility and trustworthiness.
No Prime Minister would want to celebrate his first Merdeka under such a cloud that would again engender political instability. This would seriously hamper Ismail’s ability as Prime Minister to lead the country to fight the COVID-19 pandemic and pull the economy out of the recession, as well as risk his reliability to fulfil his promise to carry out institutional reforms such as Anti-Hopping Law, outlawing defections of MPs for political gain.