Will we get a new Government and a new Prime Minister in August?

The rakyat have high expectations. They see the developments this week as a new dawn. The Emergency is going to end, Parliament will sit, Muhyiddin and Perikatan are going to be kicked out through a vote of no confidence, Pakatan and Anwar are going to take over, and Covid-19 infections are going to drop to zero while the economy is going to hit the roof.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The move by Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong and the Conference of Rulers — a.k.a. the Raja-Raja Melayu — over the last week was actually very clever. Pakatan Harapan and the anti-Muhyiddin Yassin group in Umno had whipped the people’s sentiments into a frenzy and the Raja-Raja Melayu stepped in to calm down the situation.

Over the last 14 months since 1st March 2020, Pakatan Harapan had been alleging that Muhyiddin Yassin and his Perikatan Nasional government grabbed power through a palace-backed coup. Even London based blogs were repeating that same allegation.

So, the anger towards the Raja-Raja Melayu had been rising and there were allegations that the Raja-Raja Melayu, in particular His Majesty the Agong, were the culprits for installing an illegal or backdoor government.

Chinese blogs were commenting that the monarchy (the Agong and the nine state Rulers) were a waste of the taxpayers’ money. These Rulers were costing the taxpayers millions of Ringgit, but they serve no function other than eat and sleep at the expense of the rakyat.

The nastier comments from the anti-monarchy crowd even accused the Raja-Raja Melayu of being gamblers and womanisers and people of very low morality, or of being totally immoral.

It was beginning to sound like the last days of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette in the days leading to the French Revolution of 1798.

But that has now changed, almost overnight. Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong and his brother Rulers in the Conference of Rulers are being touted as the paragon of justice, wisdom, democracy, good governance, and whatnot. And that is because they took the side of the rakyat against the government — or at least the perception that is being created.

If King Louis XVI had done this 240 or so years ago, they would not have chopped off his head on the guillotine — plus the heads of his wife and thousands of other nobles.

Well, as they say, we need to learn from history and the Raja-Raja Melayu have definitely done that — at least from Malaysia’s history of the 1980s and 1990s when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Tun Ghafar Baba and Anwar Ibrahim led the charge against the Raja-Raja Melayu in what is now called “The Constitutional Crisis”.

Pakatan Harapan and the anti-Muhyiddin Yassin group in Umno have managed to raise the people’s anger regarding the Emergency, the suspension of Parliament, the rise in the Covid-19 infection rate, the rakyat’s suffering due to the downturn in the economy, plus the loss of the PM cum Government’s majority in Parliament.

Basically, there are five issues against the PM and the Government.

And some of this anger has been channelled to His Majesty the Agong and the Raja-Raja Melayu for not only allowing Muhyiddin Yassin to become Prime Minister but also for allowing the Declaration of the Emergency.

So now, the Emergency must end on 1st August 2021, Parliament can sit 30 days after that (by September 2021), and elections (the by-elections, Sarawak State Elections, and the 15th General Election) can be held 60 days after that (by October-November 2021).

Of course, the economy would not be back to normal by then (it is going to take at least a year for that to happen). The Covid-19 situation may or may not improve by then (but most likely it will not and may, in fact, even be worse). Parliament can still sit and the elections can still be held, though, since this is what the rakyat want and the Raja-Raja Melayu have agreed that what the rakyat want the rakyat must be given.

One possible remedy would be for the government to be given to Umno-Pakatan Harapan with Anwar Ibrahim as the new Prime Minister or PM9. This can be done in September after the Emergency ends and Parliament reconvenes. And the government can be given to Umno-Pakatan Harapan with Anwar Ibrahim as the new Prime Minister when they pass a vote of no confidence against Muhyiddin in Parliament.

It is said Anwar, Najib Razak and Zahid Hamidi are currently discussing this matter. They will need at least 111 MPs (out of 220) to oust Muhyiddin and the Perikatan Nasional government. And if DAP, PKR, Amanah, and Umno (plus parties from Sabah and Sarawak) combine forces, this can be done.

Once the government changes hands and a new Prime Minister is installed, then solving the Covid-19 pandemic and the economy is no longer Muhyiddin and Perikatan’s problem. But the new PM-government will not be able to solve it as well because this is not just a Malaysian problem but a global problem.

When the West sneezes, Malaysia will catch a cold. In fact, even if just ASEAN sneezes, Malaysia will still catch a cold (like in the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis). That is the downside of Globalisation. When the world sinks it will suck you down as well.

So, Malaysia will not recover until the world recovers. And it may take a year for the world to recover, which means Malaysia will not recover even if the country gets a new government and/or a new Prime Minister by the end of this year. Globalisation can be both a blessing and a curse. In this instance it is a curse.

The rakyat have high expectations. They see the developments this week as a new dawn. The Emergency is going to end, Parliament will sit, Muhyiddin and Perikatan are going to be kicked out through a vote of no confidence, Pakatan and Anwar are going to take over, and Covid-19 infections are going to drop to zero while the economy is going to hit the roof.

What a nice bedtime story.