KUCHING, Aug 20: Saratok MP Datuk Ali Biju has chided Pakatan Harapan (PH) for claiming that the Perikatan Nasional (PN)’s support for Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob is invalid because it is ‘conditional’.
He was referring to PH leaders Pokok Sena MP Datuk Mahfuz Omar and Sepang MP Mohamed Hanipa Maidin as well as prominent pro-PH lawyer Ambiga Sreenevasan who claimed that PN’s support for Ismail is nullified after PN chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the support was on condition of a clean government.
“Muhyiddin said support for Ismail is on condition of clean government (no persons facing criminal charges to be in cabinet), separation of powers, independence of judiciary and upholding constitutional monarchy.
“Any coalition that takes power in Malaysia must in any event adheres to these conditions. No decent reasonable person, MP or political party, can possibly object to it.
“Hence, PH’s argument that this nullifies PN’s support for Ismail is absurd, baseless and a measure of PH’s desperation at failing to gather enough support to claim the post of prime minister,” he said in a statement today.
Ali, who is also Krian assemblyman, further explained that it is patently false to say that PN MPs’ support for Ismail is conditional because their Statutory Declaration (SD)’s as submitted to the King were unconditional and they had the opportunity to reiterate this to the King at the audience yesterday (Aug 19).
He also said that Mahfuz, Hanipa and Ambiga totally disregard the purport of Article 43(2)(a), which is that the support for Prime Minister is gauged by the stand of members of the Dewan Rakyat individually.
“It is astonishing that Mahfuz, Hanipa and Ambiga who was a former Bar President, have taken this extreme and illogical position; one would have thought that they would have warmly welcomed the support of PN for clean government as well as independence of judiciary.
“Instead their desperation for PH to take federal power has driven them all to a new low,” he added.
Yesterday (Aug 19), Ambiga in a series of posts on Twitter stressed that the MPs’ support for the prime minister cannot be counted because it is established upon condition.
Echoing her views were several MPs including Mahfuz and Hanipa. — DayakDaily
