PETALING JAYA: A senior Umno MP believes the present government no longer has the moral ground to continue helming the nation following the defeat of a government bill in the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday (March 22).

       Padang Rengas MP Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz said even though there was a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Pakatan Harapan and the government, politics was about perception.

       Nazri said public perception matters and the right thing to do was to return the mandate to the people.

       “I think we have no moral ground to be in the government. I leave it to my party to decide," he said during the debate on the Bill to amend the Constitution (Amendment) Act 2019 in the Dewan Rakyat on Thursday (March 23).

       Nazri emphasised that this was not his decision to make but that of his party.

       “I am not a leader, I will only comply. Today, I believe based on my opinion, it is difficult for us to stand here and run the government because we have lost the moral ground,” said Nazri.

       “If they feel they have to return the mandate to the people to ask for the voters to decide, it is their right because we lost and because the MOU was not followed,” he added.

       He also cited a practice in England that returned the mandate to the people if the government failed to pass a motion or law in Parliament.

       On Wednesday, a motion tabled by Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin to extend the enforcement of Section 4(5) of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) for another five years failed after the Dewan Rakyat voted against it.

       Dewan Rakyat Speaker Tan Sri Azhar Azizan Harun announced that the bloc voting saw 84 MPs voting for and 86 against, while 50 MPs were absent.

       The bipartisan MOU signed between the government and Pakatan Harapan last year is supposed to take effect until July 31 this year.

       Among the agreements under the MOU was that Parliament cannot be dissolved before July 31 - a move to allow a period of political stability.

       The recent Umno general assembly however heard loud calls from the party for the 15th general election to be held earlier - ahead of the parliament's expiry date of June 2023.