By T.K. Chua

On 16 January 1707, in a poorly attended Scottish Parliament, the MPs voted to dissolve their own parliament to form the union with England. In the words of the Scottish poet Robert Burns, the Scottish MPs were “bought and sold for English gold”.

Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak can’t wait to declare that the Citizens’ Declaration is unconstitutional, and that only the majority of MPs can decide the fate of the prime minister.

But then, as the story above indicates, the MPs could also decide to sell their own country.

The Federal Constitution does prescribe rules governing the tenure of the prime minister. Procedurally there is no provision in the Constitution that allows the Yang di-Perutuan Agong to sack a prime minister.

However, can a prime minister sack him or her self by resigning? I thought there are reasons and meanings for us to address our prime minister, ministers and MPs as “honourable” or “yang berhormat”. If not for anything, they are expected to act honourably for the good of the nation and the public at large.

Even ordinary citizens are sometimes expected to rise above their personal interests, what more for those holding public positions.

It is really unnecessary to go into the details of constitutional provisions governing the appointment, dismissal and the tenure of the prime minister.

We ought to know whether we have over-stayed our welcome and whether our continued presence is tenable or otherwise. It is really not difficult to assess one’s performance, credibility and acceptability as the leader of the country.

The constitution can’t foresee everything but at the same time it is not tenable for the constitution to prescribe another institution to dismiss the prime minister. That would have created another problem by infringing on the will of the people. But there is always an easy way out for the good of the country, by the prime minister himself resigning.

This is where sacrifice and honour comes in.

We can’t expect a government to function purely based on strict adherence to procedures alone. There are enduring principles, values and morality governing these procedures.

SEE ALSO:

Declaration signatures: No provision for King to sack PM

Dr M: Citizens’ Declaration gets one million signatures

Nazri: Say what you want, but PM is still strong

Dr M: Previous PMs did not cause the people much problems

T.K. Chua is an FMT reader

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