LETTER | Changing horse mid-stream during pandemic will create political instability

LETTER | The two crucial and paramount things that come very clear in the media statement of Istana Negara on June 16 are that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong wants the government to expedite the vaccination programme as the only way to flatten the Covid-19 curve via herd immunity, and for Parliament to be convened as soon as possible, as a platform for MPs to discuss various issues pertaining to the spread of Covid-19.

The king also said with Parliament convened, MPs can also discuss the provision of budget for the government to assist the rakyat in this trying time and for the recovery of the economy.

This is advice the government must take to heart as the statutory debt limit for government spending is hovering around the threshold of 60 percent allowed by Parliament last year from 55 percent.

Failing to raise the debt limit beyond 60 percent will affect severely the government’s plan to help the rakyat and businesses in coping with the livelihood aspect of the pandemic via more stimulus spending.

The government had earlier announced in its National Recovery Plan to exit from Covid-19 that Parliament is expected to convene in September or October when among other things, the daily infection numbers begin to go below 2,000 cases. This is a fair projection taking into account that currently, the daily infection numbers are in the 5,000s.

When a government speaks like this, it means that the timeline is the latest that Parliament will convene, and there is nothing to prevent the government from convening it earlier once the parameter of a daily infection of below 2,000 is reached earlier.

And the king is always being briefed by the government before each cabinet meeting. In fact, in a New Straits Times report, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was seen entering Istana Negara on June 15 for an audience with the king, which was not the typical briefing held ahead of the weekly cabinet meetings on Wednesdays.

After the meeting, Muhyiddin announced a special address that evening on his government’s plan for the exit strategy from Covid-19. Hence, we can assume the meeting is for Muhyiddin to brief the king on the National Recovery Plan.

So, the talk among opposition MPs immediately after the issuance of the royal media statement that Muhyiddin is dragging his feet to convene Parliament is really pointless, and a distraction that will only slacken the focus on managing the pandemic, which the convening of Parliament is supposed to assist.

Perhaps Muhyiddin should just play to the opposition gallery and give the green light for Parliament to be convened in August even if the daily infection number is in the five digits, which anyway is just one month from his timeline of September or October.

Sadder still was the call for Muhyiddin to resign in the aftermath of the palace media statement when the statement did not allude to any request for the resignation of the PM or any indication of it.

This is reminiscent of the media statement issued in October when the king had rejected the government’s request for an emergency. Out of the blue, politicians of all hues had a field day in demanding the resignation of the PM.

Will the resignation of the PM solve the Covid-19 pandemic? And will the incoming PM, whoever he may be, do a better job than Muhyiddin? The answers to these questions fall under the realm of probably or possibly but never certainly because it can only be known in hindsight.

When the king spoke about the need for a stable and strong government so that it can function effectively in managing the pandemic, somehow this is interpreted by both the opposition political parties and some political parties in government to mean a new government is in the offing.

Why couldn’t it be interpreted to imply a concerted effort on the part of the opposition to make the country politically stable by supporting the government’s efforts as ala a-whole-of-political-parties approach to managing the pandemic together?

Emir Research calls this, taking a political sabbatical and has made this call since last year where the singular focus of all political parties is to cease politicking and assist the government in its efforts to win the war against Covid-19 and for the recovery of the economy.

You can also call it a political moratorium in a media statement but it is a pointless one when in your media statement the hashtag 'Kerajaan Gagal' is so prominent in the heading which does not really camouflage the intent for politicking, and playing God in insisting a cumulative death number of not exceeding 5,000 as a parameter for the government to heed.

Perhaps it is expecting too much for Malaysian politicians to fathom the idea of working with the government because they see things in a parochial, binary perspective where helping the government is like signing their own political death warrant because doing this will only help Muhyiddin and Perikatan Nasional to win the 15th general election.

It seems like they never fully recovered from their loss of mandate after coming into power for less than 24 months, which was of their own doing. It is actually expected of and all right for politicians to behave this way under normal condition. After all, politicians are not politicians if you divorce them from politicking.

But this is not a normal time, this is a war against the novel coronavirus, an unprecedented one in which when you think you are on the cusp of victory, and when you least expect it, the virus becomes one up against you by mutating into some tough variants.

And you don’t expect it too that these tough variants that originated very far from your country could be in your country in one magical moment, which had led to the incredulous belief that the Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah was massaging the daily infection numbers.

Actually, if history is to be believed, it does not follow that a successful leader in a war – and this pandemic is indeed a war – could also necessarily be successful in a general election.

The charismatic leader of the UK, Winston Churchill, was very successful in turning the tide of history for Britain’s triumph after an almost certain defeat by Germany in World War II. However, in a general election held so soon after the war, and after victory to boot, he was trounced by the opposition Labour leader, Clement Attlee, in Britain’s first post-war election in 1945.

Hope this lesson of history will be good enough for any of our politicians to completely refrain from politicking in order to cool the political temperature of the country, which was also one solid piece of advice by the Council of Rulers in its meeting on Tuesday.

According to academic Chandra Muzaffar, the government has made mistakes. It could have done better in various areas. As with many other governments, it is learning as it grapples with the challenges emanating from the pandemic.

“A fair and balanced evaluation of the government's performance would conclude that there is no rational basis to seek the overthrow of the present government. In a critical situation like ours, one does not change horse mid-stream,” he added.

As for vaccination, the minister in charge of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, Khairy Jamaluddin, has already accepted many views to speed up the number of people vaccinated, among which are allowing private clinics to administer the vaccine, mobile clinics, drive-in vaccination booth, and automatic registration also known as 'jab-first-register later' which is being studied now.

As of June 15, a total of 1,476,753 people (4.6 percent of the population) had been fully vaccinated while 3,632,195 people (11.4 percent) have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Also on June 15, the daily dose given was 215,876 – the highest daily figure so far.

Perhaps this number could be increased to 400,000 a day to speed up achieving herd immunity – yes Khairy, we know you have been working too hard to get the 200,000 numbers, but perhaps you can inspire your staff to work harder like you to go to the next level so that in the end the king will be pleased, and all including the politicians could then live happily ever after.

JAMARI MOHTAR is director of media & communications at Emir Research, an independent think-tank focused on strategic policy recommendations based upon rigorous research.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.