NINETY-six people were dead on arrival over the last 24 hours in Malaysia with Covid-19. It was 93 the day before. 

These numbers, or the nearly 12,000 dead and quarter of a million active cases were however not uppermost on the minds of the Perikatan Nasional government leaders arrayed behind Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin earlier this evening. 

They were more concerned with the lack of parliamentary majority ahead of the September 7 confidence vote caused by a cohort of Umno MPs who have pulled their support for the embattled prime minister. 

Hence the apparently contrite look on their faces as Muhyiddin outlined a seven-point offer in a 20-minute speech live on national television. 

Some thought the offer was brilliant as no other MP has a majority or lined up a series of reforms in return for parliamentary support. 

Except, well, Pakatan Harapan had pledged the same reforms but could not execute it as Muhyiddin had abandoned them in February last year to work with the same group of “kleptocrats” who have now repudiated him. 

The prime minister’s offer, to say the least, is shameless and shameful. 

Here’s a man who has lost his majority but saying he will make concessions if he gets their support. 

Here’s a man saying losing the confidence vote will mean he has to go, and so will his cabinet, and that would be the end of the government’s pandemic efforts. 

Here’s a man who betrayed his ruling pact to ally himself with his political foes and now seeking support from those he had abandoned in pursuit of power. 

Here’s a man who wants to keep power to at least equal the previous government despite a poor job battling rising infections, deaths and joblessness from the pandemic response. 

Perhaps these are the ways of politicians who think they can do a better job than others despite a shoddy record. Of course the reality is some politicians actually think the PM has made an offer worth considering. 

The reality is this is an offer dead on arrival because anyone else can carry out those reforms of term limits and voting age, among others. 

And that isn’t the issue today. 

The issue is the pathetic handling of the pandemic even as vaccinations pick up and hospitalisations come down. 

The issue is the high deaths, lack of clarity to open up the country and educate its young despite the lockdowns. 

The issue is leadership and management of the country and its finances. 

One can commend the prime minister for his audacious and brazen scrotal gumption to make such an offer in the face of defeat. 

But the reality is he had 17 months to do the right thing and didn’t do much beyond naming a huge cabinet and appointing more even when he lost support. 

The only right thing he can do now is to table such reforms immediately and face the confidence vote and respect those results. – August 13, 2021.

* Jahabar Sadiq runs The Malaysian Insight.