KUCHING: The special sitting of the Dewan Rakyat to be held next Monday (March 2) for MPs to elect the eighth prime minister might not be the solution to end the political crisis faced by the country now, says Santubong MP Dato Sri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar (pix).
Wan Junaidi said he feared there would be ‘horse trading’ or ‘vote buying’ from now until March 2 by the nominees.
“In my opinion this (calling for special sitting) is not correct. Under the present circumstances, the prime minister would have just let the Yang Di Pertuan Agong handle it. The present impasse ought to be solved by the dissolution of Parliament, not the sitting of Parliament.
“The sitting of Dewan (on March 2) is only to assess support of the respective support for the groups. The figures might still be the same as what the Agong got on Feb 2. What I fear is the horse trading or vote buying from now to March 2,” he said.
He pointed out that the Rulers Conference is being held today to resolve the country’s political turmoil since none of the nominees to the post of prime minister has the majority within the context of Article 43 of the Federal Constitution.
“The Yang Di Pertuan Agong is doing the right thing, first he gets inputs from MPs and the result is there is no majority. Now, he will seek the council of the Conference of Rulers before exercising his authority under Article 40 to dissolve Parliament,” he said.
He nonetheless noted that the idea of dissolving parliament may not sit well with Pakatan Harapan (PH) which had performed poorly in the last five by-elections.
“Of course, there is political consideration, since PH took over administration they have lost one after the other in the five by-elections.
“They may fear the dissolution as they would need to face the people again after their poor performance.
“Now to save themselves from the wrath of the people, they go for the Parliament votes which is not the solution for the impasse. In fact, it would create a mess and attract the very thing we are trying to avoid – the possibility of vote buying and serious haggling,” he said.
Interim Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced yesterday that a special sitting of the Dewan Rakyat will be held on March 2, to determine the candidate who commands majority support to be the next prime minister.
If the House fails to arrive at a decision, Dr Mahathir said a snap election would be called.
Mahathir had resigned as prime minister on Monday, plunging the country into a political imbroglio following the ruling PH coalition losing its majority in the Dewan Rakyat as 26 MPs in its component party, Bersatu, and 11 MPs from another component PKR pulled out.
Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah then appointed the 94-year-old statesman to be interim prime minister pending the resolution of the situation. — TheBorneoPost
