Ali Biju
KUCHING (Aug 20): Saratok MP Datuk Ali Biju has slammed those claiming that Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) condition for a clean government invalidates the coalition’s choice of prime minister.
According to him, the claim by Pakatan Harapan (PH) leaders Mahfuz Omar (Pokok Sena MP) and Hanipa Maidin (Sepang MP), as well as lawyer Ambiga Sreenevasan is a gross misreading of Article 43 (2) (a) of the Federal Constitution.
He claimed the Article states that the support for prime minister is gauged by the stand of members of parliament individually and this was shared with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong twice by MPs.
“PH leaders Mahfuz Omar and Hanipa Maidin as well as prominent pro-PH lawyer Ambiga Sreenevasan are now claiming that the PN’s support for Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob is not valid as it’s conditional.
“This argument is absurd, baseless, and a measure of PH’s desperation at failing to gather enough support to claim the post of prime minister,” Ali said in a statement today.
Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had stated yesterday that PN’s support for Ismail Sabri was on condition of a ‘clean’ government, with no one facing criminal charges in the Cabinet, ensuring separation of powers, independence of the judiciary, and upholding a constitutional monarchy.
Ali argued the PH leaders’ stand that this nullified PN’s support for Ismail Sabri is nothing short of ridiculous because it is normal for any party that takes power in Malaysia to adhere to those terms.
“No decent reasonable person, MP or political party, can possibly object to it. Are PH and Ambiga now against clean government and independence of judiciary?” he asked.
He also said PN MPs’ statutory declarations submitted to Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah were unconditional and they also reiterated this support during their audience with the King yesterday.
“One would have thought that they would have warmly welcomed the support of PN for a clean government as well as independence of the judiciary. Instead their desperation for PH to take federal power has driven them all to a new low,” added Ali.