Will Malaysia have another week of ignominy where the topmost question in the country is whether Parliament will be dissolved or not?

Will Malaysia have another week of ignominy where the topmost question in the country is whether Parliament will be dissolved or not?

It is no credit to either the ninth Prime Minister, Ismail Sabri or to Malaysia that the question whether Parliament will be dissolved or not has paralysed the government, with Ministers sleep-walking in Parliament for a week not knowing whether they are coming or going.

It is for this reason that I have asked Ismail Sabri to announce that the topmost concerns of the government is the economic crisis facing the people as a result of rising prices and depreciation of the ringgit as well as to prepare for the worst monsoon and floods season, which claimed 54 lives and caused RM6.5 billion damage to property last year, and not the holding of the 15th General Election, so as to avoid the national frenzy whether Parliament will be dissolved before or after the presentation of the 2023 Budget today.

Ismail Sabri should be aware that the announcement of the revocation of the Emergency proclamation affecting two parliamentary by-elections in Batu Sapi and Grik and the state seat of Bugaya in Sabah will keep alive the frenzy whether Parliament will be dissolved after the tabling of the 2023 Budget in Parliament.

I have stressed that Parliamentarians regardless of party must safeguard the dignity and good name of the Malaysian Parliament and not allow 38 UMNO MPs to bring Parliament into disrepute because its “Court Cluster” leadership wants UMNO leaders to escape jail sentences for corruption charges.

It is the height of irresponsibility to hold a general election during the monsoon and floods season, where lives are lost and billions of ringgit of property damaged, and a Prime Minister who dissolves Parliament under such circumstances will be remembered for generations for this act of infamy.

The Prime Minister, Ismail Sabri, should declare that the Dewan Rakyat and the Dewan Negara will meet from Oct. 3 to Dec. 7 as planned and that there will be no attempt to truncate the parliamentary debate and passage of the 2023 Budget, whether in the Dewan Rakyat or Dewan Negara by dissolving Parliament.