Will Parliament be dissolved tomorrow or day after?
Lim Kit Siang
The single question engrossing the minds of Malaysia is not whether Malaysia is on the precipice of facing the greatest monsoon and floods disaster because of climate change, likely to cause more than 54 human lives and property damage of some RM6.5 billion as last year, or the economic crisis faced by Malaysians because of increase of food prices and depreciation of the ringgit, or the tabling of the 2023 Budget on Friday, but whether Parliament will be dissolved tomorrow or day after.
I will be surprised if Parliament is dissolved tomorrow or Friday, for it will mean that we have a Prime Minister who has not only served the shortest tenure of 14 months, but the most irresponsible Prime Minister in the nation’s history who has abdicated his responsibility to Malaysians to help them weather the worst monsoon and floods season in history and to cushion them from the economic crisis of rising prices and depreciation of the ringgit.
What is worse, we have a Prime Minister who is prepared to commit parliamentary contempt by bringing forward the October 2022 Parliamentary meeting and the tabling of the 2023 Budget, allow Parliament to meet for a week passing Bills which will lapse when Parliament is dissolved.
If the Prime Minister want to knuckle under the pressure of the UMNO “Court Cluster” to have early 15th general election, then he should advise the Yang di Pertuan Agong to dissolve Parliament before Members of Parliament from all over Malaysia gather in Kuala Lumpur on Oct. 3 for the start of the October meeting of Parliament.
Do we have the worst Prime Minister in history? We will know soon.
The UMNO “Court Cluster” may be mistaken that this is the best time for UMNO to hold the 15GE.
UMNO veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah is of the view that UMNO is not as strong as it used to be and that UMNO is facing various issues which have left its leaders no longer being able to meet the public and answer their questions.
One such problem is corruption, which Nazir Razak said in a public lecture: “If corruption was a disease, it is stage four cancer, that’s where we (Malaysia) are,”
He said Malaysia has no choice but must start with a war on corruption.
I believe that August 23, 2022 when a five-member Federal Court joined four other judges in sending former Prime Minister, Najib Razak, to jail may be a watershed as to whether Malaysia can reset and return to the original nation-building principles and policies as entrenched in the Constitution and the Rukun Negara – constitutional monarchy, parliamentary democracy, separation of powers, rule of law, good governance, public integrity, meritocracy, respect for human rights and national unity from our multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural diversity where there are no first-class and second-class citizens whether based on race, religion or region.
If I am right, then holding the 15GE now may be the worst time for UMNO.
