Najib caught on the horns of a dilemma – to call for 14GE before or after the proposed unprecedented opening of the sixth session of the 13th Parliament by Yang di Pertuan Agong on March 5
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak is caught on the horns of a dilemma – whether to call for the 14th General Election before or after the proposed unprecedented opening of the sixth session of the 13th Parliament by the Yang di Pertuan Agong on March 5.
UMNO/BN leaders are getting increasingly panicky at the growing possibility that they may be ousted from Putrajaya, effecting the first change of Federal Government in the nation’s 61year-history.
It is not only UMNO/BN leaders who are guessing as to when Parliament will be dissolved for the 14th General Election to be held, I believe Najib himself does not know and is daily agonizing over the decision.
Although Najib is projecting a confident self, even claiming that UMNO/BN can regain two-thirds parliamentary majority in the 14GE, he is daily agonizing over the question as to when he should dissolve Parliament for the 14th General Election, although the window for the 14GE has been narrowed to 75 days from March to mid-May.
Should Najib dissolve Parliament before the unprecedented opening of the sixth session of the 13th Parliament by the Yang di Pertuan Agong on 5th March for a 20-sitting parliamentary meeting till April 5?
Although there is no law to prevent the dissolution of Parliament in mid-session, the dissolution of Parliament before the Motion of Thanks for the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s Royal Address is debated and adopted by Parliament would be an unprecedented and unacceptable disrespect and contempt for the Yang di Pertuan Agong for his official opening and Royal Address to Parliament.
Tomorrow is the deadline for Members of Parliament to submit their oral questions for the March meeting, which will create history as it will the sixth session of the 13th Parliament as none of the twelve previous Parliaments had ever held a sixth Parliamentary session which was officially declared open by the Yang di Pertuan Agong.
Will the submission of questions of MPs for the first meeting of the sixth session of Parliament be a waste of time, as it would be if Parliament is dissolved before March 5 or during the Parliamentary meeting before its scheduled end on April 5?
Yesterday, the The Sun reported that Parliament is expected to be dissolved a week after Chap Goh Meh on March 2 to pave the way for the 14th General Election, with polling expected around the end of March or in April.
This would mean that the official opening of the sixth session of Parliament on March 5 would not be held.
This is a possibility that cannot be dismissed, as nobody believes that Najib would wait until June to allow Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who is slated to be released from prison on June 8, to personally campaign for Pakatan Harapan even thougth Anwar would not be allowed to contest as a candidate.
If Najib had called for 14th General Election after the Sarawak state general election in April 2016, or after the two Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar parliamentary by-elections in June 2016, or even last year, the chances of Najib winning the 14th General Election would have been higher.
But Najib has missed the opportunity in his procrastination in calling for general elections in 2016 or 2017.
Najib had hoped that the gerrymandering from the redelineation of electoral constituencies would provide him with a sure formula for UMNO/BN to be returned to Putrajaya, even with a two-thirds parliamentary majority which UMNO/BN had lost in the last two general elections in 2008 and 2013.
But if there is a political tsunami, not only in the urban areas but also in the rural and Felda areas, then the redelineation of constituencies is not going to save Najib or UMNO/BN.
The uncertainty as to when the 14th General Election would be held, with the window narrowed to a 75-day period, has caused many strange and extraordinary happenings recently in the country.
Firstly, the conviction and 30-month jail sentence for PKR Vice President and MP for Pandan Rafizi Ramli and former Public Bank clerk Johari Mohamad, have revived and reminded Malaysians of the RM250 million “cow-condo” National Feedlot Corporation (NFL) scandal, reinforcing the Pakatan Harapan campaign to purge and cleanse Malaysia of the international ignominy and infamy of a global kleptocracy as a result of the international multi-billion dollar 1MDB money-laundering scandal, FELDA, MARA, Tabung Haji and a host of other scandals.
Secondly, the “weaponising” of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission against Pakatan Harapan leaders, as evidenced by the 12-hour interrogation of the Penang DAP Exco for Public Works, Lim Hock Seng and the interrogation of Penang Deputy Chief Minister II, P.Ramasamy today in connection with the Penang undersea tunnel project.
This “weaponisation” of MACC against Pakatan Harapan leaders is evident when last May, the MACC Chief Commissioner Tan Sri Dzulkifli Ahmad made an extraordinary statement that the MACC would only act against corrupt politicians after the next general election to avoid being used as political fodder!
What is the MACC up to?
Thirdly, the increasingly hostile attitude of the international society towards corruption, as evident by the conviction and five-year jail sentence for former Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia for corruption last week and the current political controversy in South Africa, where the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has formally asked South African President Jacob Zuma to resign over corruption allegations.
MCA, on its part, has resorted to the desperate but pitiable move to beg the Chinese community for voter support in the next general election over a fictitious DAP plot to “destroy” MCA.
The DAP is not interested in destroying MCA. Only MCA can destroy MCA.
This is best illustrated by the Chinese New Year video of DAP Secretary-General and Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng and the MCA President and Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.
As at 8 am today (14th February 2018), the respective responses garnered for Guan Eng and Liow’s CNY videos are as follows:
Eng’s CNY video (up for 60 hours) - Views 399k; Reactions: 21k (19k Like, 1.5k Love); Share: 9624. (Posted at 8 pm on Feb. 11.)
Tiong Lai’s CNY video (93 hours) – Views 33k; Reactions: 1.1k (966 Like, 57 Love); Share: 493. (Posted at 10.35 am on Feb.10).
These statistics speak for themselves.