KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 1 — It won’t be just Datuk Seri Najib Razak who will fall, but the entire Barisan Nasional (BN) government if a no-confidence vote against the prime minister succeeds in Parliament, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak said today.
The communications and multimedia minister said the push for a no-confidence vote, as proposed by former leader Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, will fulfil the dream of the federal opposition flank.
“What Dr Mahathir does not tell the people is that if a vote of no confidence is successfully passed it is not just the Prime Minister who falls. It is the government that falls,” he wrote in his latest blog entry.
Salleh Said cited the alleged practice in other countries where newspapers typically report a government’s fall when such a vote of no confidence is passed, instead of reporting on the prime minister’s fall.
“The present government is the government of Najib Tun Razak. When he falls then his government falls.
“And that is what DAP, PAS and PKR want. And it appears like this is also what Dr Mahathir wants: the collapse of the Najib Razak government,” he said.
Earlier in his blog post, Salleh Said questioned Dr Mahathir’s actions, pointing out that the former prime minister had even appeared at the Bersih 4 rally to display his objection to Najib and accused the latter fo bribing BN federal lawmakers.
Salleh Said asked how a vote of no confidence can be passed against Najib if Dr Mahathir claims that the BN lawmakers had been compromised.
“That can only mean Dr Mahathir has to work with the opposition and get them to support the vote for it to succeed,” he said.
A vote of no confidence requires a simple majority of at least 112 MPs, Salleh Said pointed out.
He added that such a vote would still require 100 per cent backing from DAP, PAS, PKR lawmakers even if 30 BN lawmakers agree to vote against Najib.
On Sunday, Dr Mahathir had told Malaysians to show their “people power” to push for Najib’s removal and had also asked for a vote of no confidence to be moved in Parliament.
Among other things, Dr Mahathir — a 90-year-old Umno veteran — claimed last weekend that Najib had undermined the country’s legal system and institutions.
