People's choice

MM Online:

Malaysians already chose — Jacqueline Ann Surin

MARCH 8 — At a protest gathering against the formation of a backdoor government last month, a member of the crowd attempted to disrupt one of the speakers.

“You should stop speaking. The Agong already chose,” he said, referring to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s decision to appoint Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as Malaysia’s 8th prime minister.

The man was ushered away from the speaker, and asked to convene his own gathering, instead of disrupting a speaker at this particular gathering in Dataran Merdeka.

Still, what he had to say deserves our attention. This is not least because politicians have also started declaring that to oppose Muhyiddin’s appointment is to challenge our monarch.


Our Agong

Notable among these political leaders is Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, the president of the Islamist party PAS. Last week, Hadi accused Pakatan Harapan (PH)’s call to test out Muhyiddin’s support in Parliament as an attempt to “start a vote of no-confidence” against the ruler.

Hadi Awang 

Hadi’s remarks are notable because his party is now in federal power thanks to the machinations that triggered the PH government’s collapse in late February. Here is an influential Malay-Muslim rights-based party declaring that any test of Muhyddin’s legitimacy in Parliament would be tantamount to undermining the Agong.

This must surely be a mischievous attempt to paint our ruler as a feudal lord, instead of the constitutional monarch that he is. The fact is, our Agong isn’t a feudal lord from the Middle Ages whose powers are absolute. PAS may want that to be the case because in this instance, that would serve its illegitimate grab for power. But just because PAS wants that, doesn’t give PAS, or anyone else the right to misrepresent our monarch.

Our Agong — and I say, our because he is constitutionally bound to uphold the interests of all Malaysians — made an assessment of whom he thought was reasonably likely to command the majority of support in Parliament.

The Agong completed his constitutional duty to the best of his ability. And should there be any doubt about Muhyiddin’s legitimacy, and the facts upon which the decision was made, it is constitutional and hence appropriate for that legitimacy to be tested in Parliament.

Indeed, a vote of confidence in Parliament for a newly-appointed prime minister has been performed before in our history. In January 1976, upon the passing of Tun Abdul Razak, Tun Hussein Onn was appointed the third Malaysian prime minister. Hussein Onn did not use this royal appointment as a carte blanche. Lawyer GK Ganesan writes that 11 days after Hussein Onn’s appointment, the premier convened an emergency meeting of Parliament to ask for a vote of confidence. Only after he obtained it, did Hussein Onn begin his constitutional duties as prime minister. “He could not be said to have defied the King,” Ganesan notes.

Hussein Onn 

Likewise, the current situation. Our Agong’s constitutional duty it is to uphold our parliamentary democracy. Hence, I cannot see how he would find objectionable any attempt to confirm openly in Parliament, that Muhyiddin does indeed command a majority in Parliament. To suggest otherwise would be to suggest that our ruler isn’t a constitutional monarch. It would be to argue that whatever decision our Agong makes is carte blanche for a prime minster and a coalition Malaysians did not vote for in GE14.


Our politicians

That brings me to Muhyiddin who has decided to postpone Parliament from the scheduled sitting on March 9 to 18 May, so that he has time to decide on his cabinet, and new ministers have time to prepare for parliamentary questions. That was echoed by Umno secretary-general Tan Sri Annuar Musa, from the party that Malaysians voted out of power in GE14.

Muhyiddin 

That excuse is legitimate for any normal parliamentary session to ensure that elected representatives are prepared to better serve citizens’ interests. However, given the contentious circumstances surrounding his appointment, there is no justifiable reason for Muhyiddin not to convene an emergency meeting, like Hussein Onn did before, to prove he has the lower house’s support.

Any delay in the calling of that emergency meeting only reinforces the fact that this new coalition of Bersatu-BN-PAS is not what the people voted for. How so?

Firstly, because the results of GE14 don’t support that outcome.

Secondly, with the collapse of the government Malaysians voted for, it still remains unclear if Muhyiddin actually had the majority support of the Dewan Rakyat when the ruler decided to appoint him. PH-minus-Muhyiddin’s Bersatu, under the leadership of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, was able to demonstrate it had the support of 114 MPs on the morning of Muhyiddin’s appointment. Despite that, Dr Mahathir was unable to secure an audience with the monarch before Muhyiddin was made Malaysia’s new prime minister.

Thirdly, Muhyiddin has refused to disclose the list of MPs who support him so that the public can decide if he actually has the support he claimed he had to the Agong.

And fourthly, he now refuses to put his legitimacy to the test in an immediate parliamentary sitting.


Our vote

The question everyone needs to answer is this. How does anything that has happened so far, that led to a Bersatu-BN-PAS coalition being in power, represent the people’s vote?

Upon his appointment, Muhyiddin took great pains to explain that he did not have a choice but to “save the country from a continued crisis”. The fact is, Malaysians don’t need saving. We amply demonstrated in the May 2018 general election that we are capable of making our own choices in a democracy when we voted out the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN). We don’t need any politician to save us, not least one who refuses to have his legitimacy tested publicly.

We made our choice clear in GE14. We voted in a new government because we didn’t want an Umno-led government, whose leaders are currently facing corruption charges involving billions of ringgit. And yet, Umno is now back in power, because Muhyiddin says, he had no choice.

But the fact is, in a democracy, it’s not about any politician’s choice. It’s about the people’s.

Granted, Muhyiddin may actually have the majority support of the house. But that remains untested. And especially because the new Perikatan Nasional government comprises a party that Malaysians voted against, how could this new government ever represent the people’s will in a democracy, until it is tested?