ON October 1, DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke said Umno’s refusal to budge from holding polls this year showed that it was deliberately ignoring the Federal Constitution.

“Isn’t this derhaka against the institution of the king?” the Seremban MP asked in a statement, using the Malay word for rebellion or treason.

Citing article 40(2)(b) of the Federal Constitution, Loke said king has the power to refuse a request to dissolve parliament.

No one is actually disputing this, thus it is very strange why he brought up this issue.

He was actually responding to news reports that the Umno Supreme Council has set its own date for the election and Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob will seek an audience with the king for this purpose.

To Loke, the Umno supreme council was dictating to the king and ignoring the monarch’s discretionary powers.

This is really stretching things too far, when it is just a simple matter of Umno wanting a consensus among its top guns on when to hold an election.

There is nothing unconstitutional or derhaka in this. Past dissolution of parliament in Malaysia always began with this first step.

Loke that it was unprecedented for an open statement regarding the dissolution of Parliament to be made before the prime minister had received the approval of the king.

Well, he should study the statement made by Umno secretary-general Ahmad Maslan on September 30 to the media after an Umno Supreme Council meeting.

“The dissolution of parliament will be made soon and the general election will be held this year. The prime minister will present the date of the dissolution to the king in the near future,” he said.

“This is in line with Umno’s stand that the mandate should be returned to the people to establish a stable government following the fall of the Pakatan Harapan government due to its own internal crisis in 2020.”

So why accuse Umno of being derhaka?

Generally in Malaysia, once parliament has entered its fourth year, a general election has been held within the following 12 months.

There were cases where an election was held after three years but they were rare.

It is totally a different matter if Loke thinks it is not a good idea because of the monsoon season.

If this is the case, Loke is joined by some members of the Cabinet and quite a strong segment of the rakyat.

“In the past, it was fine to hold an election at the end of the year,” former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.

“There were floods but it was not extraordinary, but if you hold (election) now, maybe the people will die because of floods.”

Umno has been clamouring for a snap election since last year for two reasons: it saw an opportunity of winning big on the back of its victories in Sabah, Sarawak, Malacca and Johor, and also the party believes a snap election will return a stable government to office.

From the perspective of political science, this is perfectly all right and there is nothing indecent in it. Any political party in Umno’s position will do the same.

Moreover, the stability that Umno is pushing via holding election this year is becoming more relevant, as the opposition is already mulling the idea of not voting for Budget 2023, which will only cause hardship to the rakyat.

In fact, instability is already there as the clause in the Memorandum of Understanding on Transformation and Political Stability between the government and PH expired on July 31.

Furthermore, the Ukraine war and the global economic uncertainties caused by interest rate hikes by the US will only get worse.

Umno is right in wanting to eliminate this instability. The only reason as mentioned earlier why it is not conducive to do so is the threat of a big flood.

You can’t avoid flood but you can certainly mitigate the harmful effects of a big flood on lives and property.

The worst flood that happened in Baling recently occurred outside the coming monsoon season, so this is what unpredictability in climate change means.

Most weather experts said the best time to hold an election is from February or March onwards, but cannot they guarantee this.

In the event an election is called this year and there is a flood on polling day, an emergency can always be declared and polling postponed to a later date.

It doesn’t really matter when, just let Ismail decide when he wants to meet the king and let the king decide whether to give his consent.

Whatever the decision, the rakyat should and must accept it. – October 7, 2022.

* Jamari Mohtar is the Editor of Let’s Talk!

* 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.