In Malaysia, the Federal Constitution EMPOWERS on places the responsibility on Members of Parliament(MPs), the peoples' representative elected by the people the POWER in determining who shall be the Prime Minister of Malaysia, and also the POWER to remove any sitting Prime Minister - A MP will become a Prime Minister if he/she has the support or confidence of the MAJORITY of MPs, and the moment, he/she loses the support of the majority of MPs, he can no longer remain as Prime Minister.
Art 43 Federal Constitution - Cabinet
(2) The Cabinet shall be appointed as follows, that is to say:
(a) the Yang di-Pertuan Agong shall first appoint as Perdana Menteri (Prime Minister) to preside over the Cabinet a member of the House of Representatives who in his judgment is likely to command the confidence of the majority of the members of that House; and
... (4) If the Prime Minister ceases to command the confidence of the majority of the members of the House of Representatives, then, unless at his request the Yang di-Pertuan Agong dissolves Parliament, the Prime Minister shall tender the resignation of the Cabinet.
It is thus SHOCKING to see that one of the alleged conditions in the MOU that Malaysian Opposition MPs are required to SIGN to receive constituent funds includes a condition of '...support the government until the end of this term..' - Does it mean the support of Anwar Ibrahim to be Prime Minister until GE16? This is certainly UNCONSTITUTIONAL, in my view. Will MPs just for 'MONEY' not choose to oust the Prime Minister? Would this not be an abdicating of responsibility to the people???
They also would need to agree to support the government until the end of this term, he[Takiyuddin Hassan] said.
In many democracies, it happens often that a sitting Prime Minister, who loses the support of the majority of MPs will be ousted, and then the MPs choose another to be a Prime Minister.
Yes, they may have support for Anwar after GE15, but things may change and that support maybe lost for some reason or another - so will our MPs in Malaysia remain PRINCIPLED and act for the best interest of Malaysia and Malaysians and remove a Prime Minister, as provided for in our Federal Constitution OR fail in their responsibilities and keep a person they no longer are confident should remain as Prime Minister simply because of self-interest, be in monies, position in Cabinets, GLCs or other agencies.
When the 1MDB Scandal arose, MPs should have removed Najib as Prime Minister. Disappointingly, they failed to do so.
The 1st time a Prime Minister was removed because of loss of majority support or confidence was Dr Mahathir after the 'Sheraton Move' - which then saw a new Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yasin, and then our 9th Prime Minister, Ismail Sabri.
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YES, it is very common for a Prime Minister to RESIGN the moment he/she loses the support of the majority of MPs in Parliament.
Malaysians never personally chose Anwar Ibrahim to be the Prime Minister. He became the Prime Minister simply because he managed to get the support of the majority of MPs then after GE15.
Does he still have the support of the majority of MPs in Parliament TODAY?
The moment he loses that support, he can no longer remain as Prime Minister. Anwar will not be the first Prime Minister to resign because of loss of MAJORITY SUPPORT - we already have Dr Mahathir and Muhyiddin Yasin...
It is SHOCKING if what MP Takiyuddin is saying - that one of the conditions for the Opposition MPs to get constituency allocations is that they support PM Anwar's government until GE16.
Does a change of government or Prime Minister affect Malaysia is a 'bad' way? No, it does not(in my opinion).
It is WRONG and also maybe UNCONSTITUTIONAL for Malaysian MPs to keep a 'bad' Prime Minister, who they no longer have confidence to remain as Prime Minister.
There have been SIGNIFICANT changes in Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Pakatan Harapan after GE15...U-turns on many issues.
Sedition Act and the 'bad laws' - not repealed, or bad provisions removed BUT now being actively used. Most recently was when Muhyiddin Yasin was charged...
The Najib's Pardon(even though Anwar may not be personally responsible, but neither did he not speak out against it...? Public Perception? )
His forming of Unity Government with BN(the party Malaysians rejected in favour of PH and/or PN)
The discontinuance of Zahid Hamidi's criminal trial (again it is the AG/PP who did it, and Anwar not responsible. Public Perception?)
The appointment of the 'court cluster' into Cabinet,
The BlackRock-MAHB issue
The increasing of Federal Government Debt (in 2023 by more than RM90 Billion) - he merely reduced the amount of annual new debts from previously RM100 billion
The removal of subsidies of Diesel(and possibly petrol soon??)
The 'crackdown' on Peaceful Assembly ..
Censorship, Freedom of Press and Expression..
The failure to still appoint Chief Judge of Malaya since February this year..
The use of Exemption Powers for UMNO that allowed UMNO No.1 and 2 be retained without having to face a contested UMNO elections..
There are other issues, as Anwar and PH changes...some even joke that REFORMASI has become REFORMATI...
So, is it not time to once again DETERMINE whether Anwar Ibrahim still has the confidence of the majority of MPs to remain Prime Minister of Malaysia?
Anyway, Anwar and the government must stop trying to CURTAIL MPs powers to decide whether Anwar should remain Prime Minister or not...
I hope to hear Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim tell us that Takiyuddin was WRONG - there is NO CONDITION in the said MOU to receive constituency funds that require MPs to not try to OUST him as Prime Minister...
Waiting for Anwar's response...
On Constituency Funds for MPs - it is something that must be under Parliament, and the Executive(including the PM) should have no say in it...
Personally, what we need is just for Parliament to pay or cover MP's support staff wages/allowances, rental and utilities of MPs offices/centres in Constituencies, the cost of MPs communication/interaction with Constituents - talks, consultation sessions, periodicals(online/print), etc.Every MP needs staff support including someone with legal knowledge to study Bills and prepare for debate points/questions, etc...
A MP should not be given money to repair roads, houses, drains, welfare for the needy, etc > all that had already been allocated by Federal Budget to the relevant Ministries/Departments...
MP/Minister ASSET Declarations - the primary purpose is to determine their assets/wealth when they come into office, and later ensure that their assets/wealth have not been increased by way of abuse of power, corruption/other wrongful means WHILST in power. That's why 1st Asset Declaration when they come into office, and then subsequent asset declarations periodically(maybe once a year). The Asset Declaration is always disclosed to the public - and members of the public can highlight 'lies' or 'non-disclosures' of some wealth/asset.
To date, past governments have had just one Asset Declarations, which is of no use - because the people cannot compare to see whether there have been wrongful enrichment whilst in power. Anwar's PH-led Unity government yet to even have any Asset Declarations yet - they were changing the format, which was good - as asset declarations must be comprehensive - not just annual income(but details of sources needed, shares/stocks owned, land/houses, bank accounts(including out of Malaysia accounts)... TRANSPARENCY.
Should Asset Declaration obligations also be for Opposition MPs - YES. In fact, it should also be for heads of public departments too.
Should the Auditor General be empowered to audit all MPs and Ministers? YES
Now, even the government MPs who already get additional Federal allocations do not disclose how the monies are spent...It is the peoples' monies after all...
Among the clauses include matters pertaining to speech that touch on 3R (religion, race and royalty), and obligating all PN MPs to declare their assets to the government.
They also would need to agree to support the government until the end of this term, he said.
Takiyuddin said the party was puzzled why the government wanted to impose some of the conditions as part of their memorandum of understanding (MOU), and what they had to do with allocating funding to the opposition MPs.
“It is quite bizarre to us because this MOU is supposedly for channelling the compulsory funding to the opposition (MPs).
“Even though we are in the opposition, we are still MPs. Previously (when we were in power) we also allocated funding to all MPs.
“But here in this document, they mentioned seven principles on kehidupan awam (public life), hate speech, and sedition on the issues of race, religion and royalty.
“They have included 3R inside this memorandum for funding,” he told a press conference in Bangi this morning.
Response by month-end
On top of the conditions set for PN, Takiyuddin said a draft of the memorandum he received from Putrajaya last month also stipulated several obligations on the government's part.
However, it did not mention how much funding the government plans to give the opposition MPs, he added.
“What we don’t understand is why they want MPs who are not part of the administration to declare their assets.
“Previous prime ministers only required assets declaration from members of the administration like ministers, deputy prime ministers, and deputy ministers.”
According to Takiyuddin, he received the draft memorandum from Deputy Prime Minister Fadillah Yusof’s office on Aug 6, but PN had yet to deliberate on the matter as they were in the midst of the Nenggiri by-election in Kelantan then.
The opposition coalition will hold a meeting to discuss the conditions soon, he added, and they expect to come up with a decision and submit their response to Putrajaya before the end of this month.
“We haven’t decided whether we can accept this memorandum or otherwise.
“What has the allocation for MPs got to do with supporting the government until the end of this term?” the Kota Bharu MP said.
On Aug 20, Takiyuddin was reported to have said they had received the draft MOU and would discuss it soon.
Takiyuddin previously said the draft needed to be presented to PN chairperson Muhyiddin Yassin and other leaders for a decision.
On July 9, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim stated that the issue of fund allocation to opposition MPs should not be a complicated matter to resolve.
He said the conditions for any opposition MP seeking to
obtain allocations are basic requirements and standard procedures in any
negotiation and democratic practice. - Malaysiakini, 2/9/2024
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