Bersatu supreme council member Muhammad Faiz Na’aman said questioning the motives of the emergency proclamation is treasonous and should be punished.
Faiz said the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s decision to accede to Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s request for an emergency proclamation was based on his wisdom.
He added that apart from the prime minister, the ruler had received briefings from key civil servants before the decision was made.
“Therefore any insult, mockery, jibe or spinning on the emergency proclamation’s true intent as stated in Istana Negara’s official statement can be considered as a betrayal and treason.
“Whether it is done by ordinary or prominent persons, be it overtly or in a veiled manner, should be seen as a form of sedition with the malicious intent of diminishing the people’s respect and loyalty to the institution of constitutional monarchy,” he said in a statement titled “Emergency decree: Traitors should be punished”.
An unelected prime minister has no right whatsoever to call for a State of Emergency with the sole purpose of preventing an election and then to threaten to lock up and punish anyone who questions him.
If this State of Emergency had been agreed by a majority in Parliament that would be a separate matter – the country is ruled by Parliament and not by “the wisdom” of the monarch.
To the contrary the State of Emergency has been blatantly called in defiance of Parliament and with no other purpose articulated than to shut down Parliament – the Prime Minister yesterday said it himself, that he was shutting down Parliament via this State of Emergency to prevent an election being held because he had lost his majority in the previous hours.
The Prime Minister’s ‘Covid’ related excuse was that election would cause a spread of the disease.
This is unconstitutional. Section 150 (3) of the Constitution demands that a SOE is put before Parliament, which can either ratify or dismiss it. Furthermore, the reasoning is specious (ie untrue) since the dismissal of PM8 and this follower of his does not demand an election, merely a replacement. Furthermore, an election held properly (unlike Moo’s Sabah mess) need not become a spreader event.
Muhammad Faiz Na’aman is therefore uttering threatening deceptions to intimidate critics from articulating the truth and hiding behind a fake ‘Royal’ shield to protect himself. The King has extremely limited constitutional powers in Malaysia and by no means has the right to suspend Parliament against its own wishes.
This politician, for reasons of blatant self-interest, is saying otherwise and it is therefore he, if anyone, who is being ‘treasonous’ against the constitution and who is seeking to assert a non-existent concept of royal omnipotence and ‘lèse-majesté’ to justify his presumptions against Parliament.
The rest of the world fully recognises this in the global reporting of this latest scandalous development in Malaysia, which is being widely recognised for what it is – the protection of a failed prime minister on the excuse of Covid.
In fact, just 24 hours earlier the PM had announced the necessary measures to counter the rise in cases in Malaysia. The suspension of Parliament under this SOE was only later called for after subsequent resignations of MPs laid bare his lack of a governing majority.
Sarawak Report like others outside Malaysia cannot be reached by this silly threat against the right to speak truth to power.
Nor should elected and other critics within Malaysia be threatened by such thuggish and pathetic attempts to abuse Parliament and the Constitution to stay in power.