Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
Political parties biggest in Malaysia, the United Malays National Organization of Organization (UMNO), officially withdrew support from the coalition government of the National Association of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, on Tuesday (3/8).
After an emergency meeting of the party’s supreme council took place, UMNO President, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, said statutory declarations (SDs) had been signed by members of parliament from his party.
Ahmad Zahid displayed that his party had also given his party’s declaration to the King of Malaysia, Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Alam Ahmad Shah.
UMNO also stated that Muhyiddin had lost the majority of support in parliament and should not have the legitimacy to continue serving as PM.
“This shows Muhyiddin’s leadership has lost the majority of its support and its legitimacy as head of government is canceled,” Ahmad Zahid was quoted as saying. The Star.
Reported The Straits TimesSo far, the Muhyiddin government coalition or Perikatan Nasional has secured 115 of the total 222 seats in the Malaysian parliament. A total of 38 parliamentary seats were occupied by UMNO politicians.
Ahmad Zahid said that so far, as many as 11 MPs from UMNO have officially withdrawn from the government coalition. This makes Muhyiddin’s coalition currently only holds 104 seats in parliament.
Ahmad Zahid said that several other UMNO member elementary schools in parliament would be given to the King.
The decision to withdraw support for the government was announced by UMNO in early July. In its announcement, UMNO also urged Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to resign from his post.
All of UMNO’s dramatic steps were taken because they judged that the Muhyiddin government had failed to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
Ahmad said Muhyiddin had failed to fulfill his promise to the party to address the economic recovery and the Covid-19 pandemic.
That promise, said Zahid, made UMNO want to give political support to Muhyiddin when he was elected Prime Minister in March last year.
“It is clear that this government has failed to meet the aspirations of the people. The failure of this government is very visible. They distorted the declaration of state of emergency, which is seen as a political tactic, and only create misery for the people and the economy,” said Zahid.
Recently, Malaysia’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Shamsul Anuar Nasarah, also resigned from his position in Muhyiddin’s cabinet as a form of loyalty to his party, UMNO.
UMNO also urged other ministers to step down following Shamsul’s footsteps to reinforce protests against the government.
The push for Muhyiddin to step down has emerged in recent months due to public dissatisfaction with the government’s handling of Covid-19.
At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Muhyiddin government was considered successful in suppressing the spread and rate of Covid-19 infections, one of which was by implementing a regional lockdown in March 2020.
After the Covid-19 transmission trend fell, the government eased policies lockdown situationally.
However, as the corona virus infection spiked again around February 2021, the government again tightened its belt by tightening restrictions on social movements.
At that time, the government with the approval of the King of Malaysia implemented a national Covid-19 emergency status.
The declaration of emergency status gave Muhyiddin the authority to suspend parliament (recess). That way, Muhyiddin can implement policies to handle the pandemic without going through legislative approval because parliamentary activities are suspended (recess).
The disappointment of some people, including the opposition, is also increasingly widespread because the government is considered unable to reduce the transmission of Covid-19 even though it has implemented a national emergency status and lockdown stricter on June 1.
The government opposition is also increasingly restless because it cannot convey differences of opinion and input regarding the handling of Covid-19 because the parliament is in recess.
Some consider Muhyiddin to take advantage of the recession to avoid criticism of his government, which only holds a small majority after splitting with the Pakatan Harapan coalition.
The opposition’s cries for Muhyiddin to step down were even louder when the government was deemed to have violated the constitution for deciding to implement the Covid-19 national emergency status without consulting the King.
The opposition is getting angry because Muhyiddin canceled a parliamentary meeting that was supposed to take place earlier this week. A number of parties suspect that Muhyiddin’s cancellation was carried out so that he would not be overthrown by the opposition.
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