Political drama in Malaysia 23 February 2020

23 February 2020 goes down the Malaysian political history as the most dramatic political maneuver to oust a democratically elected government. It had all the intrigue, suspense and surprises as in any tv drama series. Friends and comrades became enemies and enemies came together to execute a coup.
It all started that night with Party Keadilan Rakyat deputy president Azmin Ali gathering a large group of politicians (heads of opposition political parties like UMNO, PAS, MCA, MIC, Warisan and Sarawak's ruling alliance) and other rebel members of parliament from PKR and Pribumi (or Bersatu) at the Sheraton Hotel in Subang Jaya for the sole purpose of overthrowing the ruling Pakatan Harapan government and form a new government with a new alliance. Why would a current minister do this since he was already in the government?
 They succeeded when the then Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, resigned from the Prime Minister'post in spite of the request from the king for him to stay on. Under the country's constitution, when the Prime Minister resigns, the whole cabinet of ministers is automatically dissolved. This paved the way for the appointment of a new prime minister and a new cabinet, according to the support of more than half the number of members of parliament. In this way, the new prime minister, Muhiddin Yassin, was appointed. His cabinet members included those from his own party, Bersatu, from UMNO, PAS, MCA, MIC and those from Sabah and Sarawak. Looking back today, 24/7/2021, we can see that Mahathir Mohamad did a very cunning trick on his partners in Pakatan Harapan. Prior to the Sheraton move, he was already cosying up to UMNO and PAS by attending the Malay Unity declaration, despite opposition from his partners in Pakatan Harapan and the creation of many controversial issues, like the compulsory learning of Jawi in schools and the recognition of the Unified Chinese Schools Examination which was promised as part of the election manifestos. He refused to hand over the prime minister's post to PKR president anwar Ibrahim after the 2 year reign though this was agreed upon before the general elections.
This government had been ruling the country since and as the changeover happened during the COVID19 pandemic, it inherited this scourge from the Pakatan government. Initially there were single digit daily infections. However, when the new Perikatan Nastonal coalition (PN) tried to snatch power from the Warisan controlled government in state Sabah, with a coup by inducing the crossover of elected representatives from Warisan and other political parties, the then Chief Minister, Shafie Apdal, scuttled this dishonourable effort by advising the state governor to dissolve the state assembly. Thus fresh state elections had to be held within a period of six months from the date of dissolution. This brought a flurry of politicians from peninsular Malaysia to Sabah for the purpose of campaigning and other activities. Though the PN coalition won the elections, the COVID19 virus had spread and increased to 2,000 because of this political manuvouring.
Today, 11th August 2021, the daily infections of COVID19 had reached record number of 20,000. Months of lockdown and confusing instructions from many directions in the government caused many to lose their jobs and negatively affecting the economy badly. People had to raise white flags in front of their houses to seek help to secure food. These people could not leave their houses and they had no money to buy food. Fortunately Malaysians are generally kind hearted and they quickly responded by setting up food banks and dispatched food to the needy, much to the displeasure of the PN government, as it felt that this act reflected badly on it.
Meanwhile, political dramas continue to unfold. UMNO now feels that it should be in the driver's seat, as it has the largest number of members of parliament. Their leaders had been agitating members to withdraw support for the PN government and ordering its ministers (the so called cabinet cluster) to resign. The cabinet cluster naturally refused to comply. Reluctantly, trying to placate UMNO leaders, the PM appointed UMNO vice president, Ismail Sabri, one of the cabinet cluster members, as Deputy Prime Minister to fill the existing vacant position.
This could not placate the UMNO leaders, especially the President Zahid Hamidi and Najib Razak who are charged with many counts of corruption and money laundering. They continue to agitate. Meanwhile Muhyiddin Yasin claimed that they tried to pressure him to drop the charges. This drama came to a head when the king called on PM to hold parliament sitting and debate the emergency (declared earlier supposedly to fight the pandemic) with a view to rectify it. With no choice, the PM called for a sitting of 5 days and when members wanted to debate the emergency ordinance, the Law Minster from party PAS said that the EO had been revoked. This caused an uproar with members claiming this action was unconstitutional. This unilateral revocation must have annoyed the king, so much so that he asked the PM 3 times to resign in a very short audience with the PM (lasting only 5 minutes), as claimed by Sarawak Report, citing reliable sources. Up to this point, Muhyiddin has refused to resign, saying that he intented to put his majority support to test in parliament in September, but not mentioning a date. The 5-day sitting was put to an indefinite postponement on the 4th day. Meanwhile rumours are flying that many opposition members of parliament are offered $3 durians to support Muhyiddin. The saga continues. Yesterday, 16th August 2021, Muhyiddin tendered his resignation after a televised speech earlier asking for support from DAP, a partner in Pakatan Harapan, which Muhyiddin had betrayed earlier when he pulled out from the coalition which was ruling the country, so as to become the Prime Minister with the support mainly from UMNO, PAS and MPs from Sabah and Sarawak
The king has called all major political parties'leaders to attend a meeting individually to determine the new Prime Minister this afternoon.



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