WHAT is a fight between 222 people in the Dewan Rakyat is now engulfing all of Malaysia and threatening to send the country lurching back to the days of emergency rule.

The last time this happened was in May 1969 when race riots broke out. The reasons now are myriad, from ensuring the Budget 2021 gets through to avoiding elections that can send Covid-19 infections through the roof.

Details are scant but Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, handpicked on Leap Day 2020 for the job, rushed to Kuantan yesterday for a two-hour audience with the king with his entourage that included National Security Council (NSC) members.

Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah is understood to have said he will consult his brother rulers in a special meeting this weekend.

But isn’t calling for an emergency, as suggested by media reports, proof that the Muhyiddin government has lost its parliamentary majority?

Doesn’t it reinforce opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s claim on September 23 and in an audience with the king on October 13 that he has “strong, convincing and formidable numbers” to be the prime minister?

The reality is a call for an emergency now is affirmation of a government fighting for its life and its determination to avoid any kind of polls using the rebounding coronavirus outbreak as an excuse.

Federal Territories Minister Annuar Musa went on Twitter yesterday asking critics of the plan to invoke emergency powers to suggest alternatives that could avoid elections, citing an online poll that said 87% of respondents did not want the Batu Sapi by-election and Sarawak elections to be held due to the threat of infection.

The Batu Sapi by-election is on December 5 while the Sarawak elections are only due next year when the government mandate expires on June 7.

“Please advise which law to use when Batu Sapi voters want the government to postpone the by-election? Which law to use when Sarawakians want their state election to be postponed for fear of a recurrence of what happened to Sabah?

“And which law to use when 87% of voters indicate they don’t want a general election for fear of a Covid-19 outbreak?” Annuar tweeted last night.

But lawyers and opposition politicians argue that the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 and National Security Council Act 2012 are enough to contain an epidemic.

The NSC Act allows for the prime minister to declare a local emergency, but that can be debated in parliament. 

What is certain is that only the king can declare an emergency when neither of the houses of parliament are in session. Hence the rush to Kuantan yesterday, just 10 days before the Dewan Rakyat meets for the budget session.

It is worth noting that neither Dr Mahathir Mohamad nor Najib Razak had resorted to an emergency declaration during their respective political crises – Reformasi in 1998 after Anwar’s sacking as deputy prime minister and after Barisan Nasional lost the 2018 general election.

Of course, the Mahathir government used the Internal Security Act (ISA) almost 33 years ago on October 27, 1987 to round up 106 politicians, activists and academicians and detained them without trial.

But the Najib government repealed the ISA in June 2012.

Which leaves the Muhyiddin government with very few options to ensure it prevails over squabbling and less-than-trustworthy allies in parliament and a razor-thin majority to push through the national budget.

Or as Annuar puts it, to avoid elections that nobody wants during a pandemic.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. It is now up to the king and his brother rulers to discern and decide what is good for Malaysia, just as they did in February. – October 24, 2020.

* Jahabar Sadiq runs The Malaysian Insight.