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Malaysia's government to reconvene Parliament before Aug 1

2021-07-02 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-亚洲原网页

KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia will reconvene Parliament for the first time this year in July, a minister said on Friday (July 2), just days after the King asked for the federal legislature to sit before the state of emergency expires on Aug 1.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Takiyuddin Hassan said that Parliament will sit “as soon as possible” on the instruction of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

The date will be decided at the next Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Datuk Seri Takiyuddin added in a statement.

Earlier in the day, federal opposition Pakatan Harapan urged all lawmakers to head to Parliament on July 19 if Mr Muhyiddin failed to make any announcement on the convening of Parliament by July 5 .

“The people are under a lot of pressure to the extent that there have been suicides and there have been those who have raised white flags (to ask for aid),” PH said in a statement.

“So the Parliament session needs to pay attention to the issues faced by the public and not political issues,” said the statement, co-signed by the leaders of PH’s three parties - Parti Keadilan Rakyat, Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Parti Amanah Negara.

Malaysia’s King, Sultan Abdullah Ahmad Shah, had conveyed his wish that the Parliament sit before Aug 1 during a meeting with the Speakers of both the Lower and Upper Houses of Parliament on Tuesday. It was the second time he had urged the Parliament to sit soon.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin had previously said that the Parliament would sit by September the earliest, when the Covid-19 outbreak eases. But he has come under increasing pressure to call for a sitting following the King’s comments.

Although Parliament is supposed to sit within six months of its last sitting in December, this constitutional provision is suspended during the current state of emergency, announced by the King on Jan 11. He had granted Mr Muhyiddin’s request for a state of emergency to help Malaysia contain a worsening Covid-19 outbreak. But the crisis has become worse during the emergency period.

Malaysia has been under a total lockdown since June 1, and June had been the deadliest month since the pandemic started in the country.

The country recorded 6,982 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, way above the 4,000 level the government has set for easing the restrictions.

The King held a series of meeting in June with political leaders including Mr Muhyiddin to take stock of the Covid-19 situation and the effectiveness of the emergency proclamation. He subsequently said that Parliament should “sit as soon as possible”, but did not specify a timeline at the time.

The King also met with other state rulers for a special Conference of Rulers meeting on June 16, after which they said that the emergency should not extend beyond Aug 1.

The state legislatures in a majority of Malaysian states have taken steps to reconvene in July and August, increasing the pressure on Mr Muhyiddin.

Sultan Abdullah has said that the Parliament should sit to discuss Emergency Ordinances that the government had enacted and enforced without Parliamentary approval this year.