PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan should be allowed to form a new unity government by inviting other parties into a new coalition, according to Amanah vice-president Mahfuz Omar.
Mahfuz said his party rejected calls for a snap general election to be held. Instead he said a stable government was needed to solve the country’s problems such as the Covid-19 crisis, Sinar Harian reported.
He said the current government led by PPBM president Muhyiddin Yassin was a failure, and was losing support as shown by Umno backbencher Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub’s announcement on Saturday that he no longer supported Muhyiddin as prime minister.
Ahmad Jazlan’s announcement potentially robs the Perikatan Nasional of its slim majority in the Dewan Rakyat.
“There is no way out to resolve this political crisis other than Muhyiddin resigning,” Mahfuz was quoted as saying.
Muhyiddin’s resignation would enable the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah to appoint a new prime minister from among MPs based on opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s announcement that he had the support of a majority of MPs.
“The new unity government needs to bring together all parties to ensure a more stable government, not one with a majority of only one or two votes,” he said.
Muhyiddin’s legitimacy as prime minister was also questioned in November by Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, who was absent from the vote on the 2021 federal budget. Since then ore than three quarters of Umno’s divisions have rejected any electoral cooperation with Muhyiddin’s PPBM.
Last month, Amanah president Mohamed Sabu said opposition parties should form a grand coalition in order to contest the next general election.