AFTER six months of emergency, the Dewan Rakyat convened yesterday to hear the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government’s exit strategy for the Covid-19 outbreak, which has claimed more than 8,000 lives and even more livelihoods in Malaysia.

But Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, 65-point statement notwithstanding, appeared to have little to say beyond insisting that the government had saved lives.

The only interesting information to be gleaned from the prime minister’s national recovery plan speech was that the Finance Ministry would publish a pre-budget statement before Budget 2022 is tabled in October.

The remainder of his speech about the four phases of recovery, the vaccination programme, and the National Recovery Council – the latest response committee to be formed – offered nothing new.

The House jerked to attention, however, when de facto law minister Takiyuddin Hassan blurted out that the government had cancelled all emergency ordinances, effective July 21. 

The Kota Baru MP also said that the government will not apply to extend the emergency when it expires on Aug 1. 

In any event, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong had previously indicated that he would not allow any extension.

With Takiyuddin’s revelation being five days late, it has given rise to more questions, such as whether fines issued after July 21 are considered valid, and whether the ordinances still had to be tabled in Parliament.

According to article 150(3) of the federal constitution, the emergency proclamation and it ordinances must be laid before both Houses of Parliament.

However, amid the doubts surrounding the government’s legitimacy now that Umno has withdrawn its support for Muhyiddin, PN chose to block the emergency from a vote in Parliament.

In Takiyuddin’s words, “The issue of annulment (of the emergency proclamation and its ordinances) is no longer relevant”.

That was what former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad meant when he said that yesterday’s Parliament “sitting” was a sham.

Despite the government’s attempt at giving a semblance of a sitting by allowing MPs to raise questions about its recovery plans, that too ended in shambles when Muhyiddin did not return to answer questions from the lawmakers.

Instead, the task was handed over to the unelected Finance Minister, Senator Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz. Newly-appointed Deputy Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob was also present.

With that, the government was able to ignore the questions raised on the emergency proclamation and its muted cancellation last week.

To add insult to injury, Dewan Rakyat Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun, who was mocked in the morning, stopped Tengku Zafrul’s speech at 5.45pm and said the government may reply in writing a week later.

During his speech, Muhyiddin described the Covid-19 pandemic as “an unprecedented event at an unimaginable scale”.

However, the pandemic is not the only unprecedented event, as noted by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

“Today’s events has never happened in the history of Parliament where substantive questions are left unanswered,” he said, alluding to the PN administration’s inability to withstand the grilling at the special sitting yesterday. 

“An unprecedented day in Parliament,” the Port Dickson MP said. – July 27, 2021.