Padang Rengas MP Nazri Aziz said Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s Cabinet would have called for a parliamentary sitting if they had the numbers.
“(It looks like) he (Muhyiddin) doesn’t have the numbers,” he told FMT.
Nazri added that there was nothing for Muhyiddin to be “overjoyed” about after two PKR MPs — Julau MP Larry Sng and Tebrau MP Steven Choong — declared their support for Muhyiddin recently as PN may still be short of a majority.
Earlier today, de facto law minister Takiyuddin Hassan said there would be no parliamentary sitting during the emergency period until Aug 1.
In a live-streamed press conference, Takiyuddin said the recent palace statement that Parliament can reconvene during the emergency was to explain that the Cabinet would be the one to advise the King on when the house can sit.
Nazri said the prime minister may have lost majority support in January the moment he withdrew his support for Muhyiddin, which was also the day when the emergency was announced.
He was one of the Umno MPs to have withdrawn their support. The other is Machang MP Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub, while Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has urged the party to make a decision on withdrawing support as requested by 147 divisions.
Nazri said if Parliament reconvened during the emergency, rival parties may call for a showdown of numbers and PN “may lose its majority”.
“In fact, when it called for the emergency, it showed it (PN) didn’t have the majority,” said the former de facto law minister.
Now, if the Cabinet were to allow for a parliamentary sitting during the emergency, it would prove they made a mistake in calling for an emergency and were likely to “lose face”.
“They wouldn’t want to admit their mistake,” he said. However, he said the government would still have to face Umno when the emergency was over. “They will still have to face us. There is no running away.”
The only way forward was for the government to focus on reducing the Covid-19 numbers and to call for a general election once the emergency was lifted, he added.
Pasir Salak MP Tajuddin Abdul Rahman said the Cabinet could advise the King but “the King has the right to make the final decision”.
“As far as we (Umno) are concerned, the King has decided that Parliament can sit during the emergency.”
Former Pulai MP Nur Jazlan Mohamed said: “Everyone knows why the emergency is not being lifted or why parliamentary sittings are not allowed.”
The former deputy home minister said there was no reason not to allow Parliament to sit.
“The movement control order is being lifted from March 5. Economic sectors, including beauty parlours and spas, are allowed to open but not Parliament.”
Referring to Nazri’s comments that PN may not have the majority, Jazlan said one of the reasons for the Cabinet not to advise the King to allow Parliament to reconvene during the emergency was because “the Cabinet may not be there if they allow it to sit”.
Umno was reported to have held a closed-door meeting in Janda Baik, Pahang, recently where it was said to have decided to cut ties with PPBM during the upcoming GE15.