PRIOR to the “Sheraton move” in February last year, Parliament as the prize was the model in every general election conducted where Malaysians choose from among competing coalitions at election time. The coalition that got elected gets what amounts to a blank cheque where they can enact legislation that empowers officials to pursue policy objectives free of the restraints of law.

Based on the prevailing issue, there is no better time to discuss and ask if is there a reason why the leader of the largest opposition coalition is not invited to form a government?

The rakyat have been hearing so many opinions from legal and constitutional experts and politicians and it appears that there is no right or wrong or proper or incorrect approach to this question.

Despite expert opinions to the contrary, the Westminster democracy already showed its flaw in February 2020, when political parties rejected by a majority of voters at the ballot box were installed in power.

Following Bersatu’s exit from the ruling coalition led by Pakatan Harapan in February last year, no single political party or coalition has overall control or a majority in the Dewan Rakyat.

By convention with the Westminster system, the existing prime minister will be given the first chance to create a government where he may decide to negotiate with another party or parties to build a coalition or he try and govern with a minority of MPs or after failing to negotiate a coalition, recommend that the leader of the largest opposition party be invited to form a government. They may decide to form a coalition or govern as a minority government.

In an unprecedented move, consistent with the provision that the prime minister must command majority support, the king interviewed all the MPs and upon determining that Muhyiddin Yassin received support from a majority of the lawmakers, including those in political parties with no formal coalition arrangement with his party, consented to him being the new PM.

Now that Muhyiddin has resigned on his own admission he does not command the confidence of majority of the MPs, even though it was not confirmed via a vote in Parliament, the Westminster convention is supposedly for him, as a caretaker PM until a successor is found, to recommend to the king that the leader of the largest opposition pact PH, voted in by majority of Malaysians in May 2018 before it was toppled in February 2020, be invited to form a government either via a newly formed coalition or govern as a minority government.

In the home of the Westminster system, there were precedents where the Conservative party lost their majority at the general election in 1923 but still continued governing. The year after, in 1924, the party, however lost a vote on the king’s speech. The opposition Labour party then took office and governed as a minority administration until the next general election.

Again, in the 2010 general election, no party managed to secure a majority. The Labour party, the ruling government preceding the general election, remained ruling until a majority government could be formed. The opposition Conservative party managed to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrat party and this new coalition took over ruling the country in the same year.

We have always prided and referred the system of our government in Malaysia as one modelled to that of the Westminster system, where Parliament is the national legislature and a general election is held at least once every five years, usually concurrent with state elections for state assemblies except for Sarawak.

Westminster democracy is a system of governance also known as responsible government and parliamentary government, in which people do not directly elect their government but leave it to the elected legislature to install, supervise, and remove the government, where the appointment and dismissal of the prime minister and the dissolution of Parliament are exercised in a non‑partisan way in accordance with constitutional conventions.

The Westminster system promotes the formation of political parties, as candidates in a party can offer voters more things than those who remain independent.

It also forces the rakyat to entrust the task to lawmakers. It is not the rakyat but these MPs who picks the next prime minister, who then chooses from within the ranks of lawmakers to be in his or her cabinet, a government not necessarily desired by a majority of Malaysians who voted.

The rakyat had no control over Parliament and was itself manipulated by politicians. Election was by no means fair; there were many members who were in both the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara by virtue of office or nomination.

In this system, the government continues in office as long as it has the confidence of the Dewan Rakyat. Usually, that confidence is lost upon defeat at a general election.

It appears that Parliament today is no different from Istana Budaya – a theatre – where plays are performed to a paying audience and the vote is a pointless ritual.

Parliament is where a group of selfish individuals seeking to obtain shares of an economic pie conduct themselves with an endless process of shifting majorities.

In seeking to share power among the three parties post February last year, there is clearly no outcome. An equal division among all three parties will be defeated by a 50:50 split between any two; which in turn is defeated by an appropriate 60:40 split in which one of the earlier coalition members gets 60 and the other nothing, and so on.

The king has increasingly become the focal point for the nation during this raging pandemic and he demonstrated his royal prerogative in February last year and acted in accordance with the constitution and by convention.

Why not in this instance?

An approach along this mode, practised in other democracies also modelled along the Westminster system and convention, will extinguish the necessity of all those statutory declarations and “frogging” among MPs. – August 17, 2021.

* FLK reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.