Right and proper thing for Najib to do is to seek a vote of confidence when Parliament reconvenes on Monday

The right and proper thing for Datuk Seri Najib Razak to do is to seek a vote of confidence as Prime Minister when Parliament reconvenes on Monday.

Although there is no precedent of a “no confidence” motion in Malaysian Parliament in the past 56 years, there is a precedent for a “vote of confidence” motion on the Prime Minister, which was moved in the Dewan Rakyat on January 27, 1976, by then Dato Hussein Onn when he became Malaysia’s third Prime Minister after the death of his predecessor, Tun Razak.

There had earlier been a suggestion that Pakatan Rakyat MPs should table a motion of no confidence against the Prime Minister when Parliament reconvenes on May 18 especially as the ballooning RM42 billion 1MDB scandal will involve not only all Malaysians but future generations.

Apart from the question of its practicability, as there is a great likelihood that such a motion under the present circumstances would not be able to navigate through the Parliamentary Standing Orders to surface as a motion to be debated and decided by MPs in Parliament, there is now the added problem that it may not even secure the full vote of PR MPs.

As nobody really believes all the “big drama” enacted after the Umno Supreme Council meeting yesterday that “things are never so well in Umno” and “support for Najib never so strong” or Najib’s declaration that “no one can tear me and Muhyiddin apart” and that “Those slandering us don’t love UMNO” – reducing not just former Umno Ministers but UMNO’s longest-serving Prime Minister into instant traitors of Umno – as the first minority Prime Minister in the country, Najib should seek a motion of confidence from Parliament on Monday to prove to the nation and the world that he still enjoys the confidence of the majority of MPs in the country.

Is Najib bold enough to seek such a vote of confidence from Parliament on Monday or he is fearful that an accident might occur and he might lose a vote of confidence on Monday and suddenly cease to be Prime Minister?