KUALA LUMPUR, March 25 ― Civil society leaders have diverged as the Save Malaysia movement seeks alternative routes to a no-confidence vote in Parliament in its attempt to force a government leadership change.

As one of the signatories to the Citizens’ Declaration that seeks pressure Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to resign, lawyer Eric Paulsen said there is nothing wrong with politicians making deals, as long as corruption was not involved.

“Everybody's allowed to wheel and deal,” the co-founder of legal aid group Lawyers for Liberty told Malay Mail Online.

“At the end of the day, politics is about being able to garner the most support and votes,” he added.

Paulsen stressed that civil society must be involved in the political process, although they do not have to directly make deals with other parties, so that they can have a say in fighting for the reforms they want.

“Look at Egypt. There was a people's uprising, but they refused to participate in politics, thinking it was too dirty. See what happened ― everybody will just grab power,” he said, referring to the 2011 Arab Spring revolution in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries.

Malay Mail Online reported yesterday that the Save Malaysia movement is banking on the support of about a dozen key Umno leaders from the Malay ruling party’s supreme council, Johor and Sabah, as well as party veterans, to oust Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, instead of going for a no-confidence vote.

DAP publicity chief and Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua told a press conference that a no-confidence vote in Parliament was futile and that it was more important to forge new political alliances.

National Human Rights Society president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, also a member of the Save Malaysia movement, said the “Perak route” could be taken to remove Najib from office, pointing out that the prime minister would not resign and neither would a no-confidence motion, which “requires an independent Speaker”, be allowed in the House.

“There is the third and final way, what I call the Perak route, which has received the blessings of our courts, where numbers will matter [as they would for a no-confidence motion],” Ambiga told Malay Mail Online.

“I would not personally feel the first two methods should be abandoned; miracles do happen. But realistically, it is the third method that is most likely to work. I believe that is something for the politicians and Members of Parliament to sort out as finally, it is the MPs who will determine if a PM enjoys the majority of the House,” the former Malaysian Bar president added.

Ambiga was referring to Barisan Nasional’s (BN) move to take over the Perak government that was then under control of the then-Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact, triggering the 2009 constitutional crisis.

Three PR assemblymen declared themselves independents loyal to BN, leading the BN state lawmakers to have an audience with the then Perak ruler to state they had no confidence in Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin as their mentri besar.

The move against the MB outside the state legislative assembly was challenged in court all the way to the Federal Court, which ruled that the sultan had a discretion to decide who had the majority confidence of the elected representatives, and which saw BN’s Datuk Dr Zambry Abd Kadir judged the rightful MB.

Solidariti Anak Muda Malaysia chairman Badrul Hisham Shaharin however insisted that a no-confidence vote in Parliament was the only right way to remove the prime minister.

“If it’s outside Parliament, it’s not democratic,” the youth movement chief told Malay Mail Online.

Suaram adviser Dr Kua Kia Soong said making deals with Umno leaders was a form of “cattle trading” similar to PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s failed September 16 attempt in 2008 to win over BN MPs.

“Any action led by Mahathir can never be a serious movement for institutional reform,” Kua told Malay Mail Online.

“Fundamentally, Umno represents crony capitalism, authoritarian rule based on racial and Islamic populism,” he added.