MUHYIDDIN Yassin must prove that he has majority support in Parliament in the next two weeks, Lin Kit Siang said today.

The DAP veteran said the prime minister must call for Parliament to meet by August 16 to show he still has the numbers to remain the prime minister.

The Iskandar Puteri MP said the six emergency ordinances can also be annulled in this sitting.

He said this in view of Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s announcement yesterday that 11 lawmakers from his party have withdrawn their support for Muhyiddin and their letters have been submitted to the palace.

“With Zahid’s announcement that Umno is withdrawing support for Muhyiddin as prime minister, Parliament should meet latest by August 16 to annul the six emergency ordinances and for Muhyiddin to demonstrate he has the confidence of the majority of Parliament,” Lim said. 

Yesterday Muhyiddin said the emergency ordinances promulgated this year will be tabled in the Parliament sitting scheduled for September.

The process to cancel the ordinances as intended by the cabinet could not proceed without the assent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, he said in a statement yesterday.

“The process of cancelling the emergency ordinances by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong as advised by the cabinet on July 23, 2021, could not be completed. 

“Given that the emergency proclamation has expired on August 1, 2021, based on provisions in the federal constitution, the issue of the cancellation of the ordinances by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong no longer arises. 

“Instead, in line with His Majesty’s views and Article 150(3) of the federal constitution, a motion to debate and to revoke the ordinances will be brought to Parliament, which is scheduled to meet in September 2021,” Muhyiddin had said.

Muhyiddin has come under immense pressure over the manner his government had handled the revocation of the emergency ordinances during the special Parliament meeting last week.

His government faced a royal rebuke as well as renewed calls for him to step down.

Umno’s move yesterday leaves Muhyiddin’s position very shaky, resulting in late night meetings involving his group of supporters in Perikatan Nasional and Barisan Nasional.

A major complaint about the Muhyiddin government had been its ineffectiveness in handling the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lim, in his statement today, also said that 20 months after the Covid-19 pandemic, Malaysia has ended up as one of the world’s worst performing nations under any metric. 

“When Malaysia first imposed the movement-control order (MCO) on March 18, 2020, Malaysia had 728 Covid-19 cases and two deaths. 

“Now, after numerous MCOs and a six-month emergency, we have a cumulative total of 1,163,291 Covid-19 cases and 9,598 Covid-19 deaths – 1,600 times the number of cases and 4,800 times the number of deaths after 16 months,” he said. – August 4, 2021.