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PH to discuss Parliament sitting postponement

Mar 05, 2020

Pakatan Harapan will discuss the postponement of the next sitting of Parliament, when the coalition's leadership gets together for its next meeting. 

It comes after the Dewan Rakyat speaker confirmed that the next sitting will be on May 18th, despite PH hoping for it to be done earlier, to table a motion of no-confidence against the Prime Minister.

Political analyst Dr Oh Ei Sun told us, there is no legal requirement to hold such a no-confidence vote:

"There is no written Constitutional requirement for a sitting PM to call for a motion confidence in favour of himself, nor has opposition members the automnatic right to call for a motion of no confidence against a sitting PM or government, because this is not explicitly stated in the Malaysian Constitution." 

Separately, snap elections could be called in Melaka, if the current deadlock over the Chief Minister's post cannot be resolved. 

This, after UMNO and Bersatu put forward names of their prefered candidates for the post, even though both parties are supposed to be on the same side, after the recent political re-alignment.

It has led UMNO to say that its prepared to have the state assembly dissolved to pave the way for elections, if there's any dissastifaction over the choice of the new Chief Minister.

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Autogate, E-gate systems suspended for now

The Autogate and E-gate system at all the country's entry points has been temporarily suspended. 

The Immigration Department says this is to allow for stricter screening of Malaysians returning from overseas, amid the Covid-19 outbreak.

Meanwhile, employers have been urged to take measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus at the workplace.

This includes carrying out a risk assesment, and improving work procedures to reduce the risk of exposure to the virus.

As for companies that do report Covid 19-positive cases, Health Director General Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah says there is no need for drastic measures, because proper cleaning and disinfecting is sufficient.

It comes as the number of positive infections in the country rose to 50 yesteday.

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What happens to high-profile court cases now?

The recent resignation of Tan Sri Tommy Thomas as Attorney-General has raised questions about some of the high profile cases curently being heard in courts.

This includes the corruption trials involving Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Datin Seri Rosman Mansor, and Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

We spoke to Constitutional Lawyer Surendra Ananth, who explains what could happen when the new AG comes in:

"The trials of any corrupt or criminal proceedings for that matter will continue to proceed even after the AG as resigned, so obviously if a new AG comes in and if that AG wants to withdraw the charges, then he can do so, because the conduct of criminal proceedings is within the the discretion of the AG."

This comes after Tommy Thomas handed in his resignation before his contract was up, explaining that he did so because of the political change in the country.