IT must be déjà vu that Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah should summon Dewan Rakyat Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun and Dewan Negara Speaker Rais Yatim for an audience before decreeing that Parliament could reconvene during the State of Emergency, upon the advice of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

It was almost a year ago on February 28, 2020, that the king summoned then Dewan Rakyat Speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof to the palace, twice on the same day, for an audience believed to be about matters related to a proposed parliamentary sitting.

Ariff then released a statement saying there would be no special Dewan Rakyat sitting on the following Monday despite a request to do so by then interim prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Ariff said the request to hold a special sitting did not contain complete motions of Parliament as required under Dewan Rakyat Standing Order 11(3).

However, with due respect, Standing Order 11(3) simply states as follow:

“If, during an adjournment of the House, it is represented to the speaker by the prime minister that the public interest requires that the House should meet at an earlier date than that to which the House was adjourned, the speaker shall give notice thereof forthwith and the House shall meet at the time stated in such notice. The business set down for that day shall be appointed by the prime minister and notice thereof shall be circulated not later than the time of meeting.”

No one in the right frame of mind would dispute that it is in the public interest that the Dewan Rakyat should meet without delay, with safety measures of course. Parliamentarians in full PPE have been sighted in the Dewan Rakyat before.

This is the time to be united. Political differences must be set aside. Let the Dewan Rakyat meet without delay.

So, over to you, prime minister. – February 25, 2021.

* Hafiz Hassan reads The Malaysian Insight.