Will the Perikatan government be shorter than the Pakatan government?
If at least 111 out of 220 MPs support that vote, then Muhyiddin will have to tender his resignation and Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong will appoint a new prime minister who has the support of the majority of the Members of the House. Alternatively, Muhyiddin can request the Agong to dissolve parliament so that a snap GE15 can he held.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
A vote on a new government is needed, either by Parliament or by the people, despite Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s high approval rating in an opinion survey, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said. “Clearly the unelected Perikatan Nasional government cannot get the country moving in the right direction again,” Guan Eng said (READ MORE HERE).
Yes, according to Guan Eng, the Perikatan Nasional government was not elected while the Pakatan Harapan government was. How did Guan Eng come to that conclusion? How long has he been in politics that he still does not understand how the Westminster parliamentary system works?
Guan Eng says Muhyiddin must either face a vote of no confidence in parliament or face a snap GE15
But of course the Perikatan Nasional government was NOT elected to office. And neither was the Pakatan Harapan government in May 2018. No government is ever elected to office. It is the members of parliament who are elected to office and then they get together to form the government. And in May 2018, 222 members of parliament were voted into office.
Guan Eng, like his Pakatan Harapan comrades, are trying to give the impression that the Perikatan Nasional government is illegal or unconstitutional and that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is illegitimate (backdoor prime minister, as they keep saying). That is utter nonsense and only fools would believe that.
Voters vote for their representatives in government (wakil rakyat, as the Malays call them). These 811 representatives in parliament and in the state assemblies (senators are appointed) represent 32 million Malaysians or the 12.3 million voters who came out to vote in GE14.
(About 2.7 million registered voters stayed home and did not come out to vote while 3.4 million did not register to vote. Hence 6.1 million Malaysians who could/should have voted did not bother to do so).
Anyway, just 5.5 million Malaysians voted for PKR, DAP, PPBM and Amanah while 12.9 million Malaysians who are eligible to vote DID NOT vote for those four parties that call themselves Pakatan Harapan.
Let me repeat that. Out of the 18.4 million Malaysians who were eligible to vote in GE14, only 5.5 million voted for PKR, DAP, PPBM and Amanah while 12.9 million DID NOT. That is the real scenario.
Now, Pakatan Harapan formed the government not because the majority of Malaysians voted for them (because PKR, DAP, PPBM and Amanah a.k.a. Pakatan Harapan DID NOT garner the majority of the votes: they garnered just 45.68% of the votes). Pakatan Harapan formed the government because 113 out of 222 members of parliament supported them (meaning 50.9% of the MPs).
In other words, they had only two extra MPs. If they had just 111 MPs, then it would have been a hung parliament. And this was against the backdrop of only 45.68% of the votes.
Muhyiddin is a legitimate PM because he won his seat in GE14 and he had the support of the most number of MPs on 1st March 2020
So, what is Guan Eng and the Pakatan Harapan people screaming about? They did not win a landslide victory, as they are trying to suggest. The scraped through with just 45.68% of the votes and two extra seats. It was a razor-thin win against the backdrop of less than 50% of the votes.
But then that is the problem with the British Westminster system of parliament. You get to form the government if you have the largest number of MPs (not the largest number of votes). And it does not have to be 50% plus one MP. In a three-corner situation, the largest minority gets to form the government.
Hence Perikatan Nasional would be the largest minority since Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional are also minorities, and smaller minorities than Perikatan Nasional. That’s how it works.
Even if the voters are not happy, as Guan Eng alleges, so what? What can the voters do about it? Nothing! They need to wait until Polling Day of GE15 to vote this government out by voting for non-Perikatan Nasional MPs. That is all they can do.
Pakatan Harapan says they represent the people’s voice. How can they represent the people’s voice when PKR, DAP, PPBM and Amanah garnered only 5.5 million votes out of 12.3 million voters in GE14 — or 18.4 million eligible voters and 32 million Malaysians?
Maybe they can claim they represent the people’s voice because they had 113 MPs with them in May 2018. But that was in May 2018. In February 2020, they lost those 113 MPs when they forced Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to resign.
Can Anwar, Zahid and Najib get enough MPs to support a vote of no confidence against Muhyiddin in August 2021?
On 1st March 2020, Pakatan Harapan was left with just PKR, DAP and Amanah. The PPBM MPs plus a number of PKR MPs were no longer supporting Pakatan Harapan on 1st March 2020. Hence, on 1st March 2020, they no longer had the 113 MPs which they had in May 2018.
In short, on 1st March 2020, Pakatan Harapan lost the government when they lost more than three MPs and were down to less than 111 MPs. Why can’t Guan Eng and those Pakatan Harapan people understand a simple thing like this?
Anyway, according to the government, parliament will sit again most likely in August, which is roughly 100 days from now. According to the plan, Anwar Ibrahim will call for a vote of no confidence against Muhyiddin.
If at least 111 out of 220 MPs support that vote, then Muhyiddin will have to tender his resignation and Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong will appoint a new prime minister who has the support of the majority of the Members of the House. Alternatively, Muhyiddin can request the Agong to dissolve parliament so that a snap GE15 can he held.
Which will it be? Will Muhyiddin resign or will parliament be dissolved and will a snap GE15 be held? Well, let’s see first whether a vote of no confidence is held and, if it is, whether it passes with a majority vote.
Let’s be very clear about one thing, though. The people have nothing to do with this. The people only come out to vote once every five years to choose their wakil rakyat. And, after that, the 222 MPs do what the fook they like, kononnya, on behalf of the people.
So, 100 days from now, the wakil rakyat — and not the 32 million “people” — will try to oust Muhyiddin Yassin and replace him with Anwar Ibrahim. And, if Anwar has 110 MPs who want him as PM9, then Muhyiddin either resigns or dissolves parliament. That is what we will see in August 2021.
