MARCH 4 — Malaysia’s parliamentary democracy remains alive. Yet, amidst the swirl of events between February 23 to February 29 2020, leading to Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin being named as the eighth Prime Minister of Malaysia, something is missing: The understanding of Malaysia as a Constitutional Monarchy (too).
Under such a system of Constitutional Monarchy, as and when the Prime Minister has resigned, or ostensibly lost the confidence of the Members of Parliament in the legislature formed of 222 of them, then the King, known in Malaysia as His Majesty Agong, would have to step in.
Thus Malaysia has a combination of two systems working in lock steps to ensure the interest of all the people in the country, in the event of an executive vacuum produced by a dead lock in the parliament, or in this case, the sudden resignation of former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed on February 24, before he was re-appointed by His Majesty Agong on that very same day as the “interim” or “care taker” Prime Minister.
While the word “interim” does not appear anywhere in the Malaysian Federal Constitution, there is a similar provision for “care taker” Prime Minister. Thus, while the government of Pakatan Harapan collapsed on February 24 with the resignation of the then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed, his subsequent role as the care taker Prime Minister allows, mutatis mutandis, the creation of the care taker government; where the latter would continue to function either based on candidates nominated by the political parties or chosen by the care taker Prime Minister himself until the impasse would be solved.
In light of the sudden and abrupt political uncertainties, that can lead to endless Game of Thrones to place one’s favourite candidate as the Prime Minister, His Majesty Agong had to act swiftly. Had this not manifested accordingly, to the powers provided to him by the Federal Constitution, he would have been accused of exposing Malaysia to the serious inter-mix of political and economic issues. Granted the looming Covid 19, which is still under control in Malaysia, His Majesty Agong understood the need to fill up the void produced by the absence of a Prime Minister. Why? The goal was to pre-empt the speed at which all things could unravel: either an economy bushwhacked by a lethal epidemology, or, a weak economy that makes it impossible for the health authorities in Malaysia to respond with alacrity.
Thus, it was all but necessary, to make a decision to permit the Prime Minister to be quickly appointed. On February 25-26, the palace of His Majesty Agong himself conducted an interview and poll of all 222 MPs. All these legislative members were asked three questions, which were revealed to the press.
One, would the MPs be supporting Mahathir, Anwar Ibrahim who then commands the biggest bloc of the votes in the parliament, or potentially, Muhyiddin, who too could marshal the votes, albeit based on a pastiche of various political parties, some of which were Malay nationalist while others Islamic ethno nationalist parties known as PAS.
Since a motley collection of political parties in Sarawak, known as GPS, had agreed to be “friendly” or become favorable to Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, His Majesty Agong granted Muhyiddin the right to claim the role of the eighth Prime Minister of Malaysia, as per the provision provided to His Majesty Agong by the Federal Constitution.
There was no “Royal Coup” as claimed by The Guardian. Everything was executed based on the Federal Constitution. Indeed, the parliamentary speaker, had announced, under the advisement of Prime Minister Mahyuddin Yassin, to hold the next parliamentary session on May 18 2020, for a stretch of 15 days.
The misreading of Malaysia is understandable, by many analysts and observers local and abroad, when they failed to understand the country as a Constitutional Monarchy. Yet Malaysia is also a political regime based on the Whitehall system of government. Checks and balances remain the crucial edifice of the country, and continue to remain the case despite the demographic predominance of the Malays and Muslims in the country. There will not be a tyranny of the majority over the minority.
*This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
