The opposition just can’t get its act together

(Rakyat Post) – TWO issues have taken the limelight this week. One is the haze and the other is the Parliament sitting.

However, judging by the turn of events in Parliament, one can only summarise that certain issues that have arisen in the august house are hazy in nature.

The issue that is on everyone’s mind is the no confidence motion against the Prime Minister.

In the race to be seen as the people’s champion, the opposition seems to have tripped and is now covered in mud due to its poor coordination and lack of concerted efforts.

Firstly, they were in two minds whether to proceed with the motion. Then, without consulting the other parties in the Pakatan Harapan, PKR filed a motion and it made into the Parliament’s order of affairs.

Everyone was upbeat about it until DAP’s Lim Guan Eng fired a salvo saying that PKR was “playing marbles” by getting an ordinary MP, Petaling Jaya Selatan’s Hee Loy Sian, to file the motion when it should have been done by the opposition leader.

After some interesting words were exchanged among the two parties, opposition leader Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said the earlier motion will be withdrawn and she will be filing it.

Lim underscored the importance of such a move, saying that removing the Prime Minister of the nation was a serious matter and it must be given due recognition.

Now the speaker has said the motion to be filed by Dr Wan Azizah may not see the light of the day in this sitting as it needed to be filed 14 days before the start of the session.

Well it just looks like the motion was doomed from the start.

Firstly, even if everything fell into place for the opposition, it was highly unlikely that they would have the numbers to pass the no-confidence motion.

Even if all the opposition members, including Pas, voted for it, they still needed rebel MPs from the Barisan Nasional to make it happen.

But it surely is an uphill task to convince enough BN MPs to vote with them.

The opposition fully realises this, and with all this “drama”, a question that begets everyone is whether some of them were intentional.

This is so that they can deflect blame from the rakyat for not doing their work properly.

They are next expected to say that the government had flexed its muscles to ensure they were prevented from proceeding with the vote.

Even Bersih had reprimanded the opposition for not getting its act together.

Now their only game plan left is to use the tabling of the Budget and trying to get it voted down.

But will they succeed?

The key here will be to get the BN representatives, but will it materialise although there are some disillusioned members on their side?

Well, let’s just wait and see.

This Parliament sitting is surely going to go down in history as among the most important and significant, given that the stakes are very high.

After all, if the Budget is not passed, it will be considered a symbolic gesture of a no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister.