ANNUAR Musa is probably one of the better orators in Malaysian politics today. But the ability to speak well does not mean that what he says is good for Malaysia.

Today, the minister and estranged Umno leader pleaded with his party not to abandon Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s Perikatan Nasional (PN) government ahead of the next general elections.

“This is not the time to leave and break up the governments Umno has formed with PAS and Bersatu in Sabah, Johor, Malacca and Perak.

“This is not the time to abandon our duties, to forsake the government we have formed,” said Annuar on Facebook today.

He said Umno has a duty to serve the voters.

Annuar is right that Umno has a duty to serve the voters, the slim majority who decided in the 2018 elections that Pakatan Harapan (PH) would form the federal government, not his hastily scratched-together pact that grabbed power in 2020.

The reality is, Annuar is asking his party to keep a clutch of Umno leaders in the cabinet and rule the country until the next elections.

That is possible if the PN government holds the parliamentary majority. That is possible if PN can prove that majority in parliament. That is possible if the prime minister advises Yang Di-Pertuan Agong to lift the emergency declaration and get the Dewan Rakyat to meet.

The king has agreed that parliament can meet, after talking to the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara speakers last month. Yet that has yet to take place.

So all Annuar can do is go to social media and plead with his party to do what he thinks is right. The party itself is under attack for saying it will not ally itself with PN in the next general election.

Annuar and those who talk about national duty or a Malay-Muslim government are just masking their selfish ambitions to stay in power rather than on the opposition bench.

As it is, this collection of ministers would not even be qualified to run a school PTA, let alone any aspect of government.

The right thing to do is to respect the people’s mandate. And to allow their representatives back in parliament to speak and debate the issues of the day.

If that is not possible, then go to the polls. Any talk of national duty from this cabinet during this emergency is just opportunism and hypocrisy. – April 1, 2021.

* Jahabar Sadiq runs The Malaysian Insight.