GENERAL elections can be delayed until the Covid-19 pandemic is over but Parliament must be restored, DAP has suggested, calling these moves a “political circuit-breaker” to avert Malaysia’s worsening health, education and governance crises.

Party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said the past one year of having Perikatan Nasional (PN) in federal power has resulted in political instability, and the suspension of Parliament due to the current state of emergency has only perpetuated the crisis.

“As a political circuit breaker, DAP would like to suggest that Parliament be restored and all political parties commit to delaying general elections until the global pandemic is over.

“Whether or not that is tantamount to requiring elections to be held only until the end of the current term in 2023 or include the possibility that the current government be replaced by another government that can command majority support, running a government competently for the sake of the rakyat should be the utmost priority. 

“Malaysia cannot afford to continue to be failing dangerously,” Lim said in a statement today.

The Bagan MP and former finance minister noted that it has only been a few days since the Yang Di Pertuan Agong decreed that Parliament can be held during a pandemic and yet, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s government has made any response.

“There is ominous silence from the government and unholy inertia from the Parliament Speaker Azhar Harun about convening parliamentary meeting swiftly. 

“Such sinister stasis is an act of treachery against democracy and arguably ‘lese-majeste’ against the King,” Lim said.

A state of emergency was declared by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong effective January 11, on the advice of the government. 

Ostensibly to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, it also suspends Parliament, state legislative assemblies and elections from being held.

Malaysia is probably the only country in the world that believes that the heinous act of suspending Parliament can overcome Covid-19. Even the King dismisses such rationale in a landmark statement denying that the Emergency Proclamation sanctioned such subversion of parliamentary democracy by the PN government.

The King on February 24, however, decreed that it was “erroneous” for some quarters to hold the view that Parliament could not sit during an emergency.

Lim said the PN government’s justification that it needed emergency powers to pass laws and ordinances as part of fighting the pandemic has been achieved with the recent move to raise penalties on Covid-19 SOP violators from RM1,000 to RM10,000 for individuals, and RM50,000 for companies.

“Why is there still a need to maintain an emergency and suspension of Parliament?” he asked.

His statement today also listed Malaysia’s other problems during the pandemic, such as economic contraction for 2020, rise in unemployment, double-standards in enforcing Covid-19 SOP, confusion in pandemic crisis management, insufficient funds for bolder economic stimulus packages, and a drop in placement and scores in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for 2020.

Lim said suspending Parliament had not prevented such problems and instead showed a “failure of leadership and crisis management” which has led to Malaysia becoming the worst in Asean in terms of fighting the pandemic.

“With the prolonged economic recession, loss of jobs and business closures, as well as school shutdowns brought about by PN’s mismanagement of the pandemic, Malaysia is not just living dangerously, but failing dangerously.

“There is a complete lack of focus on handling the ensuing economic crisis, unemployment crisis and education crisis. Against this backdrop and little noticed, is the widespread rise in corruption,” he added. – February 28, 2021.