OF late, the online media has been inundated with queries on why schools can reopen in phases starting March 1, while Parliament cannot convene. This follows the Education Ministry’s recent announcement that students can return for face-to-face lessons after months of having online classes owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Many argue that millions of students returning to schools nationwide pose higher health risks than several hundred lawmakers and officials congregating for several weeks. Besides, it’s harder to enforce Covid-19 standard operating procedure (SOP) for students, than lawmakers, who set health policies and ought to lead by example.

During such discourses, snide remarks were passed about how Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was afraid to convene the Dewan Rakyat as he had supposedly lost the support of MPs. Critics also accuse the PM of using the emergency proclamation to cling on to power.

Such arguments miss the point. As we know, one reason why the emergency was declared was to avoid any snap polls that could be triggered by the uncertainty over who commands majority support to be the PM.

Based on previous voting pattern in the 222-seat Dewan Rakyat, Perikatan Nasional (PN) had a majority of around two seats. But several deaths among MPs and the withdrawal of support from Umno lawmakers had possibly left PN with less than 112 votes, which is a simple majority.

Even if Muhyiddin has lost the support of the minimum 112 MPs, it doesn’t mean that there will automatically be a new PM, if there’s no emergency. As we know, the opposition is fractious and could not come to an agreement on who to back as PM.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim, the opposition’s main contenders, are both staking a claim on the premiership. Neither has a clear majority. Making things more fluid is that several Umno MPs can swing either way.

If the emergency were lifted and Muhyiddin were to lose a no-confidence vote in the Dewan Rakyat, a failure to agree on a PM candidate will only result in one thing: a snap poll.

Based on the Sabah polls experience last year, this is the last thing we need. That state elections triggered the third wave of Covid-19 pandemic in the country, killing hundreds in the process and infecting tens or hundreds of thousands of Malaysians.

We cannot have a repeat of that. The national Covid-19 vaccination programme has barely gotten underway and we cannot afford to undo all the good mitigation work that had succeeded in bringing the infection numbers down.

I am all in favour of the polls. Muhyiddin has said that he will call for an election once the Covid-19 situation eases. For now, let’s focus on containing the spread of Covid-19 and one way to do that is to avoid a snap election that can be triggered if the Dewan Rakyat is allowed to convene. – February 22, 2021.

*Lokman Abd Halim reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.