Press Statement
26th July 2021

Parliament reconvened for the first day in disaster and ended in catastrophe

After being illegally and unconstitutionally suspended for six months, Parliament reconvened for the first day in disaster and ended in catastrophe.

The Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin’s Ministerial statement on the National Recovery Plan was a disaster.

There was no honest attempt to admit that the government, through its blind faith in total lockdowns, had mishandled the Covid-19 pandemic; that the six-month emergency saw the cumulative total of Covid-19 cases increase by nearly 8 times from 135,992 cases to 1,027,954 cases, and the Covid-19 deaths increased by nearly 15 times from 551 deaths to 8,201 deaths; and the National Recovery Plan was an instant failure, as the nation was unable to make the transition from Phase 1 to Phase 2 at the end of June as planned.

Yesterday we set a new daily record for new Covid-19 cases – 17,045 cases – and today, we set a new daily record for new Covid-19 deaths – 207.

But the greatest disaster was the government’s biggest secret – that five days ago, the Cabinet had revoked the six Emergency Ordinances, making Malaysia probably the only country in the world with an Emergency Proclamation without any Emergency Ordinance.

But did the Cabinet revoke the Emergency Ordinances, as there is not a single gazette to that effect and nobody including the royal household, seems to know?

As the DAP MP for Bukit Mertajam Steven Sim pointed out in Parliament, if the government can be frank about the Prime Minister’s bowel movements, why not the Emergency Ordinances?

But today’s Parliament ended up as a catastrophe when the Prime Minister bolted from the House and was not present in the winding-up session of the Ministerial Statement.

I had after the Ministerial Statement asked the Prime Minister to give a satisfactory explanation why he had misled Parliament and the nation for five days about the revocation of the Emergency Ordinances by the Cabinet on 21st July, as even the Parliament Speaker was not aware of it or this would be his explanation for rejecting the motions of DAP MP for Beruas, Ngeh Koo Ham, to annul the Emergency Ordinances.

I said in Parliament that if the Prime Minister was unable to give any satisfactory explanation, then he should be referred to the Committee of Privileges for misleading Parliament.

But Muhyiddin wass not in Parliament to respond to the clarifications sought by Members of Parliament at the winding-up stage and the buck was passed to the Finance Minister, Senator Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz.

It was a day of shame for the Malaysian Parliament.

How can the National Recovery Plan be a ”whole-of-nation” Plan as claimed by Muhyiddin, when it cannot even be a “whole-of-Parliament” Plan?

Lim Kit Siang
MP for Iskandar Puteri