Kit Siang suffers a vote of no confidence

But then if I cannot even win in a ‘tame’ exercise like blocking Kit Siang’s suspension, how can I win in a more complex move like voting the Prime Minister out of office?

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Lim Kit Siang was suspended from Parliament for six months with a 107:77 vote. 107 MPs voted for his suspension with 77 voting against. That means 38 MPs were absent for whatever reason.

Nine opposition MPs were absent — seven from PAS and two from PKR — while 29 Barisan Nasional MPs were also absent. No reason for their absence was offered.

Anyway, if the nine absent opposition MPs had attended the Parliament sitting it would still have been 107:86 — assuming the nine opposition MPs vote with their other 77 comrades to oppose the motion to suspend Kit Siang.

Of course, I am assuming that the 107 MPs who voted for Kit Siang’s suspension were all from Barisan Nasional while the 77 who voted against it were also all from the opposition and that there was no ‘cross-border-voting’ — because if there were it would have been ‘headline news’ by now.

Now, did these 38 absent MPs (29 from BN and nine from the opposition) absent themselves from Parliament for valid reasons? Or did they absent themselves because they wanted to abstain from voting?

In other words they did not want to vote either for or against Kit Siang’s suspension but they do not want the public to know. They want their ‘loyalty’ to remain a secret, at least for now.

What I am most interested to know is how did Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah vote? In the first place, did he attend Parliament or was he one of those 38 absent MPs? And if he attended Parliament did he vote alongside the 107 who voted to suspend Kit Siang or did he vote with the 77 who opposed Kit Siang’s suspension.

I ask these questions because I do not have the information yet. Anyway, whatever it may be it would not look good for Ku Li.

The issue here is, there are three possible scenarios. First, Ku Li was absent from Parliament and therefore ‘abstained’ from voting. Second, Ku Li attended Parliament and voted with the 107 to suspend Kit Siang. Third, Ku Li attended Parliament and voted with the 77 to oppose the suspension.

Now, I am raising this matter because Ku Li has set up an operations centre in his house to plan the vote of no confidence against Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. So he is very much in the eye of the storm, so to speak.

According to Ku Li’s people, five of the nine Rulers support this planned vote of no confidence — Perlis, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Perak and Terengganu. And Ku Li’s people also said Perlis and Negeri Sembilan were the Rulers behind that press statement regarding 1MDB that was issued after the pre-council meeting on the eve of the recent Conference of Rulers.

If what Ku Li’s people said were true, then this would have serious repercussions on Malaysian politics. First of all, this means the Rulers have been dragged into Malaysian politics. Secondly, the Rulers are now divided between the pro-Najib and anti-Najib camps. Thirdly, even if the Rulers were ‘taking sides’ in this political struggle, I doubt they would want it made public like what Ku Li’s people are doing.

Anyway, the 107:77-vote to suspend Kit Siang with 38 ‘abstaining’ is definitely most interesting indeed. They would need at least 112 votes for the vote of no confidence against the Prime Minister to be passed. If they did have these 112 (or more) votes, they could have tested it by using those 112 (or more) votes to block Kit Siang’s suspension. After all, only 107 voted in favour of suspending Kit Siang.

Is it they do not have the 112 (or more) votes? Or is it they do have the 112 (or more) votes but they do not want anyone to know yet? Or is it that those who are going to vote for the vote of no confidence want to remain ‘underground’ for the meantime in case the vote fails and that would expose them to the risk of retaliation?

If it were I, I would have wanted to test my strength by seeing if I have enough votes. And one way would be to make sure that at least 112 MPs vote to block Kit Siang’s suspension. And if I can succeed in a ‘simple’ thing like that then that would mean I would have a better chance of winning the no confidence vote.

But then if I cannot even win in a ‘tame’ exercise like blocking Kit Siang’s suspension, how can I win in a more complex move like voting the Prime Minister out of office?