OPPOSITION pact Pakatan Harapan today urged Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to call for a Parliament sitting soon so that they can work together in handling the economic and health crises caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

PH leaders, while lauding Muhyiddin’s conciliatory tone in his stimulus package speech announced today, said, however, the new government should pursue a more sincere bipartisan approach towards the handling of the crisis.

The PH leaders said the new ruling pact, Perikatan Nasional and GPS, should leave political competition to another day.

“If the government initiates genuine and sincere bipartisan moves, Pakatan Harapan will reciprocate,” said PKR president Anwar Ibrahim, Amanah president Mohamad Sabu and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng in a joint statement.

They added that, as the stimulus package was effectively useful for only two months, the government must exercise true bipartisan spirit to continue the Parliament sitting on May 18, or even bring it forward to as soon as the movement control order ends.

“This is to enable the government and the opposition to form bipartisan action plans for the nation to move forward, including (by) formulating a new budget, taking into account all new scenarios and factors involved.

“It is the practice of democratic countries to debate the government’s stimulus packages in Parliament to ensure proper implementation and monitoring.

“This crisis requires an economic approach that will ‘do whatever it takes’. It is in the interest of the nation and her people that the government adopts a bipartisan approach to do the maximum so that we can stop the slide into unprecedented recession.”

Muhyiddin was sworn in as prime minister on March 1 with the support of Umno, PAS and Sarawak’s GPS.

Earlier, he had withdrawn his party Bersatu from PH, resulting in the collapse of the ruling pact.

He had then postponed March’s Parliament sitting to May 18, saying he needed time to appoint his cabinet members.

His government had then faced the Covid-19 pandemic, which has so far seen 26 deaths in Malaysia, with 2,161 people infected.

Earlier today, Muhyiddin announced his RM250 billion stimulus package to overcome the economic downturn caused by the virus. – March 27, 2020.