AHEAD of the one-day Parliament sitting tomorrow, Dr Mahathir Mohamad joined a meeting of Pakatan Harapan party chiefs today to affirm opposition to Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s government and to restore the people’s mandate.

Parti Warisan Sabah president Mohd Shafie Apdal was also present at the meeting chaired by PKR president Anwar Ibrahim, who has been appointed leader of the opposition and PH chairman.

In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the three PH party chiefs, Dr Mahathir and Shafie said they agreed that Muhyiddin lacked the legitimacy to lead the government due to his failure to test his support among MPs at the sitting tomorrow.

“Our meeting unanimously agreed to affirm our resolve and to enhance efforts to restore the people’s mandate by regaining control of the government.

“This is because we agreed that the government has a problem of legitimacy as Muhyiddin has failed to test his support among MPs in Parliament tomorrow,” the five leaders said in the joint statement.

Dr Mahathir signed the statement in his capacity as Bersatu chairman.

Besides Shafie and Anwar, other leaders who signed the statement are DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and Amanah president Mohamad Sabu.

Dr Mahathir is still with Bersatu despite opposing Muhyiddin’s Perikatan Nasional government, which ousted PH in late February through defections and plotting with Umno, PAS and ex-PKR leaders.

The 94-year old two-time prime minister has said he will sit with the opposition at the sitting tomorrow. 

Talk is rife that he will be sacked from Bersatu, although such a move is likely to put Muhyiddin in a difficult position as the party is split between Dr Mahathir supporters and those who support the PN government.

The meeting today also condemned the PN government awarding positions in government-linked companies or as special envoys or ambassadors to MPs to seal their support.

They also discussed the discharge not amounting to an acquittal of Riza Aziz, the stepson of former prime minister Najib Razak, over his five money-laundering charges of funds allegedly stolen from 1Malaysia development Bhd.

“(Riza’s case) is a signal that other major cases involving political figures might also be resolved in the same manner,” the joint statement said.

The leaders said the establishment of new ministries in Muhyiddin’s expanded cabinet, without funding allocations approved in Parliament, was a problem.

They said the RM260 billion economic stimulus package by Muhyiddin’s government had not been tabled nor approved by Parliament.

MPs will not get the chance to do so, now that government matters on the stimulus package have been removed from the agenda of the one-day sitting tomorrow.

The sitting tomorrow will only hear the Royal Address before Parliament adjourns until July.

“MPs should be given the opportunity to debate this stimulus package to ensure that there is no leakage in providing assistance to the people,” the PH leaders, Dr Mahathir and Shafie said.

“We unanimously agree that Parliament needs to function as a democratic institution to ensure check and balance, to test and verify support for the Prime Minister, and to debate and decide on bills and ways to resolve the people’s problems.

“We are dissatisfied with the government’s decision to convene a sitting only to hear the royal address, and affirm the opposition’s stand that Parliament can and must go beyond what the government is doing to resolve the people’s problems.” – May 17, 2020.