KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 3 ― Deputy Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said today suggested that it was too late for the prime minister to only now announce that the Emergency Ordinances have yet to be completely revoked.
The Pengerang MP for Umno tweeted an idiom “A day late and a dollar short !!!” in response to the prime minister’s announcement earlier today.
In the same tweet, Azalina attached the prime minister’s announcement.
Following a week of controversy over the actual status of six Emergency Ordinances that the law minister had in Dewan Rakyat claimed to have been revoked since July 21, the prime minister today finally clarified that the process to have the Yang di-Pertuan Agong revoke the Ordinances as advised by the Cabinet on July 23 “could not be completed”.
Citing the Federal Constitution, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the issue of the Agong’s revocation of the Emergency Ordinances no longer arose, as the nationwide Emergency had ended on August 1.
Muhyiddin said that a motion to debate and annul the Emergency Ordinances could therefore be tabled in the Parliament meeting scheduled for September 2021, saying that this is in line with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s views and Article 150(3) of the Federal Constitution.
Muhyiddin said this motion would be discussed in the Cabinet meeting tomorrow, expressing hope that it would help resolve the matter regarding the Emergency Ordinances in a harmonious and constitutional manner.
Muhyiddin’s statement comes after MPs pressed for an answer and clarification from the federal government on the status of the Emergency Ordinances and for Parliament to resume its special sittings.
Opposition MPs yesterday united to mount a symbolic march to Parliament to press for the Dewan Rakyat to resume its special sitting that was due yesterday.
Opposition senators today submitted a letter addressed to the Dewan Negara Speaker to ask for the upper house of Parliament to carry out its three-day special sittings initially scheduled from today until Thursday, in order to rectify the government’s error of announcing the revocation of the Emergency Ordinances without going through Parliament.
The Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara special sittings this week were postponed indefinitely due to purported Covid-19 risks.
The next Dewan Rakyat meeting is scheduled to start September 6 and end September 30.
