PETALING JAYA: Amanah vice-president Mahfuz Omar wants Pakatan Harapan and opposition MPs to boycott the independent committee formed by the government for the emergency.
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The Pokok Sena MP said this was important so as to send a strong message that there was no need for an emergency to be declared, adding that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had already lost the majority support of MPs in the Dewan Rakyat.
Mahfuz said opposition MPs being part of the independent committee would only lend legitimacy to the Perikatan Nasional government.
“The prime minister and PN is a government that stole the people’s mandate and when the emergency was proclaimed, the PN government had already lost their majority as they only held 111 seats.
“One day later, that number dropped to 110. Clearly, this prime minister and Cabinet did not deserve to make such a decision (to declare an emergency) and present it to the King,” he said in a statement today.
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In his national address on Tuesday, Muhyiddin had said an independent committee consisting of government and opposition MPs will be formed to advise the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on the Covid-19 situation and when the emergency should end.
Later that day, Umno’s Padang Rengas MP Nazri Aziz announced that he was withdrawing his support for the PN government, describing the emergency as an admission of defeat by Muhyiddin.
He became the second Umno MP to officially retract his support for the PN government after Machang MP Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub did so last week.
Nazri also said he expects two or three more MPs to withdraw their support for Muhyiddin. Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has not stated his stand but did not support the 2021 budget proposal by the PN government.
Nazri’s announcement means the PN government only has 110 MPs in its bloc in the 222-seat Dewan Rakyat.- FMT