By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, June 5: Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) vice president Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah has dismissed speculation of a snap general election as mere rumours created by the opposition.
He said a snap general election could only be called in two situations: when there is a vote of no confidence against the prime minister or when the prime minister announces the dissolution of Parliament. He stated that both were unlikely to happen presently.
“You have to understand that the Parliament can only be dissolved when the prime minister advises the King to dissolve it and he will do it only when he feels that there is no more confidence in his leadership.
“So at the moment, all of us can only be speculating and I do know that the opposition, who are so crazy of wanting to come to power, they are the ones who have been creating a lot of rumours that there is going to be a snap general election. As far as I am concerned, these are just rumours,” Abdul Karim told DayakDaily.
Rumours have been rife that a snap general election will be called as Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is said to have the backing of 130 MPs out of 222. The rumours are further fuelled by the fact that he had recently met up with the King.
Abdul Karim said the reality of the present scenario is that only Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin can advise the King to dissolve the Parliament.
“Nobody else can do that, not even Anwar or (former Prime Minister) Tun Mahathir (Mohamad). They can’t just go and see the King and claim that they want to dissolve the Parliament. They don’t have the locus standi.”
Abdul Karim believed that the King, who has the final say in determining the country’s premiership, would be persuaded by Anwar’s purported claim of having the majority of MPs with him.
“I don’t think the King or the Royal Institution can be fooled or played. The institution of the King cannot be pushed around whereby after two months (after the Sheraton Move which resulted in the change of government), one can come back the King to claim that he has the number.”
He explained that during what has since been dubbed the Sheraton Move, Dr Mahathir had a say because he was the Prime Minister then and thus had the right to advise the King.
“During that time, it was Tun who went to see the King and to insist that he wanted to step down. Because of that, there was an impasse and the King had to interfere.
“In this case, Tan Sri Muhyiddin is not stepping down. So how can the King interfere? It is not for the King to interfere into the country’s politics without a legitimate cause. It is also not for Datuk Seri Anwar or Tun Mahathir to advise the King,” explained Abdul Karim.—DayakDaily
