CAN we describe the 18 Barisan Nasional (BN) lawmakers who gathered in the Kuala Lumpur City Hall auditorium today as Langkah Bandaraya or Bandaraya Move?

And are they a circle jerk, a self-gratifying group believing they have the numbers to prop up the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government in a Dewan Rakyat confidence vote next month?

After all, only 18 were present although 21 signed the attendance sheets. And after the bravado of supporting Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin by saying the embattled leader has 31 BN MPs backing him – two MPs said their signatures did not constitute support.

Meanwhile, Higher Education Minister and Umno Wanita chief Noraini Ahmad quit the cabinet, following in the footsteps of Lenggong MP Shamsul Anuar Nasarah who resigned on Tuesday.

No matter how it is spun, the mathematics does not add up for Muhyiddin nor his beleaguered government battling the Covid-19 pandemic and questions of legitimacy.

The Dewan Rakyat has 222 seats, of which two seats are vacant due to deaths. Of the remaining 220, 118 are not with the PM, who is now part of the 102 in the government benches.

Of course, this has to be tested in the Dewan Rakyat once it convenes for the new parliamentary sitting beginning September 6. Until then, all Malaysians have are declarations by political parties and individual MPs.

Plus, the comical, if not farcical, show at the City Hall Auditorium today where 18 turned up to say there were 21 of them representing 31 in all. What magic arithmetic is this? We will never know.

But if only they put the same kind of energy and effort to combatting Covid-19 and the other ills that ail Malaysia, from the status of the cabotage policy to the souring economy and despair of millions of Malaysians suffering from the prolonged lockdown.

Surely the newly-anointed Deputy Prime MInister Ismail Sabri can do better than organise today’s press conference by working out strategies to bring down the escalating number of infections and deaths?

Surely, he can now work with the just named ministerial-level adviser Ahmad Faizal Azumu in the socio-economic and community fields for the people? Or even help the PM name replacements for the two vacant ministerial posts?

Malaysia and Malaysians need action, not watch various groups of politicians pose as pop group members on stage auditioning to be the best leadership in the country.

Because, at this point in time, most of them are failures, really. The only ones doing any work are those not on stage or on any screens in front of us.

That includes all the frontliners and the vaccination team racing to inoculate as many Malaysians as possible before the Delta and other variants of concern swamp an already-overwhelmed health service.

Instead, all we have are politicians making moves to keep themselves in or throw their foes out of power. That can be done in Parliament as soon as possible, not in any hotel ballroom or public auditorium.

*Jahabar Sadiq runs The Malaysian Insight.