FOR Perikatan Nasional (PN), power is too intoxicating to be left to constitutional methods. This prompted Selangor PN chairman Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali to say that the Federal Constitution allows for the change of the government.
He therefore contended that if the government of the day does not meet the needs and aspirations of the people, then grievances will be passed to the elected representatives to challenge the government. Whether the government stays in power or not will depend on the majority support in the Parliament.
If the government fails the confidence vote, then the political party or the coalition that has majority support will have the option to form the alternative government.
Prime Minister (PM) Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had said in a recent Hari Raya Aidilfitri gathering in Penang that those who want to challenge the government in power must get the numbers to prove their influence in the Parliament.
All the threats and clandestine moves to undermine and remove the government through unconstitutional means will have no effect on the present unity government.
Azmin, the one-time Selangor Menteri Besar, seems to portray himself as the constitutional expert on how governments could be changed.
However, due to oversight or selective memory, he conveniently forgets that the Constitution was far from his mind when he and former PM Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin clandestinely orchestrated the Sheraton Move to remove the popularly elected PH government after been in power for 22 months.
If Azmin can talk about the constitutional way to change the government in power, maybe he would want to explain his devious and conniving role in the Sheraton Move.
Maybe Azmin can advise his former mentor and former PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad the sheer futility of bringing down the unity government on the basis of the Proklamasi Melayu or Malay Proclamation.
Instead Azmin and his colleagues in both Bersatu and PAS could think of ways and means to get the support in the Parliament to pass a vote of confidence or non-confidence on the stewardship of Anwar as the PM of the country.
In fact, Anwar has paved the way for the constitutional challenge in the Parliament.
Rather than contemplating another Sheraton Move, I would advise Azmin to ascertain whether PN as a whole has the majority support in the Parliament or else whether the coalition has dubious or questionable sworn affidavits to prove its majority support.
Azmin for all his evils or nefarious designs cannot pretend to be constitutionalist or firm believer in law and order. Power by hook or crook is the way he would think as the best way forward like his colleagues in the PN.
The green wave that provided support for the PN in the last parliamentary election might have subsided under the weight of corruption charges and the performance of the present government.
Azmin by talking about the constitutional means to acquire power might be inadvertently thinking of the extra-constitutional ways to unseat the present government.
For PN, despite its racial and religious rhetoric, power is too intoxicating to be left to the acceptable parliamentary ways. – May 7, 2023
Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy is the DAP state assemblyman for Perai. He is also Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
