Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is creating a mockery out of Parliament proceedings by holding a special meeting in accordance with Standing Orders 11(3) (SO), which will not see any debates and voting.
Although Emergency was declared in January 2021, on Feb 24, the King was of the view that Parliament should convene during the state of the emergency period and he then reiterated several times that Parliament should reconvene. The Federal Constitution also allows the sitting of Parliament during an emergency
Why did Muhyiddin choose to have Parliament under this standing order when he could have done it under the normal process i.e. 11(1) of the SO? The message of the King was for us to meet and debate the motions, not merely attend a briefing session.
What Muhyiddin has done is create a mute and degraded form of Parliament.
Why a vote count is necessary
What is the necessity for a special sitting? It’s unprecedented for Ministers to make Ministerial statements under the SO and to allow MPs to pose questions without a vote being taken. This process taken by the PM is to deny MPs the right to vote on the issue.
The PM must be bold and take the leadership of openness to take a vote after each Ministerial Statement is made. In any case nowhere in the SO it states a vote cannot be taken.
If the PM as leader of the house has the majority, he should boldly show proof of his numbers in the Parliament process. But will Muhyiddin dare to?
We are given to understand a few MPs like the Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar and the Beruas MP Dato Ngeh’s motions on various issues have been rejected by the speaker apparently due to technicalities. Call upon the PM in the bigger interest of the nation to request these motions to be called up, debated and a vote be taken.
Trust Deficit
The reason for the declaration of Emergency in January 2021 was to contain curb and prevent further spread of COVID-19 pandemic in this country.
The Covid19 infections have been in the increase since the declaration of Emergency. There seems to be severe loss of confidence by the people towards this PN Government.
Many unnecessary bungles like delay in getting the vaccines, the process of vaccination itself, spread of Covid19 at vaccination centres, the “empty syringe” incident due to “fatigue of nurses” and many more. In short there is a trust deficit by the populace in the PN Government
Anything short of voting on all issues in the coming sitting of Parliament will mean the session is just done for formality sake and is an attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of the people.
I call upon the PM to make an open apology to all Malaysians that the Emergency was a grave mistake. He and the Government must take full responsibility for the continued failure to contain the spread and increase of Covid19 infections throughout the nation.