Malaysia
is a democratic country which means that the government is formed through its
people; either by ruling directly or electing representatives. The parliament
of Malaysia consists of the Senate (Dewan Negara) and the House of
Representatives (Dewan Rakyat). A general election is held every five years
once to decide the ruling party.
The GE14 was one of the significant event in
our country where the opposition, Pakatan Harapan, defeated Barisan Nasional
who had been ruling for the past 60 years. However, things became even more
interesting when an unexpected incident occurred this year.
(Tun Mahathir Mohamad being sworn in as Malaysia’s seventh Prime Minister at the Palace on May 10, 2018)
On
the 9th of May 2020, a history was made in the political aspect of
Malaysia where former Prime Minister and also former member of UMNO became the
man to topple the government, Tun Dr Mahathir. Mahathir Mohamad was the 4th
Prime Minister of Malaysia (1981-2003) and was re-elected in 2018 at the age of
92. He was part of a multi-ethnic coalition known as Pakatan Harapan. The union
made a promise to fight against corruption and enact policies that such as
cutting taxes and spending more on health and education that would include
young ethnically diverse leaders to be involved. In other words, it is the
formation of ‘New Malaysia’. Also, Mahathir came out of retirement to take down
the former Prime Minister at that time who was Najib Razak.

(Malaysia's parliament met for the first time since a power grab led to the collapse of the government elected in May 2018 and the appointment of Muhyiddin Yassin as prime minister)
Now,
I am sure as citizens of this country, we were all looking forward for the new
Malaysia concept to be fully implemented in our country but there was an
unexpected twist that no one saw coming. In February 2020, Mahathir resigned
from his post as Prime Minister and his post was then taken over by Muhyiddin
Yassin, a former member of Mahathir’s party. In our country, a general election
is held once every five years to determine the ruling party but this incident
occurred in just two years. The sudden change of government really shocked
everyone. Mahathir even stated that the appointment of Muhyiddin as Prime
Minister was illegal and a betrayal and it also seems like he is not willing to
give up without a fight. And just when Muhyiddin is doing his job as the new
Prime Minster of Malaysia, the country yet faces another turmoil which is the
Covid-19.
Seeing
the current situation, there are high chances of Malaysia going through another
general election by this year. Here are few scenarios to further explain the
possibilities of it.
Muhyiddin
Yassin was an UMNO politician for a long time and held the post of Deputy Prime
Minister during the reign of Najib Razak. He was then dismissed from the
government in 2015 when he publicly opposed Najib’s action in the 1MDB issue.
After that he ended his membership from UMNO and joined Mahathir’s Malaysian
United Indigenous Party (BERSATU) and held the position as the party’s
president. When he was moving from Harapan to Perikatan, he was serving as
Mahathir’s Minister of Home Affairs. During Muhyiddin’s withdrawal from the
Harapan Union, he split the Bersatu party and Mahathir’s working majority in
the House of Representatives (Dewan Rakyat) and overturned the government. On
29th of February 2020, Muhyiddin secure the support of the King to
form a new Perikatan government and the next day he took an oath as the 8th
Prime Minister of Malaysia. This method were referred as ‘backdoor power grab’
by the opponents.
I
am sure some politicians and party would have felt that it was unfair for
Muhyiddin to be elected as the Prime Minister just like that, without having to
going through the voting procedures and maybe some citizens are not happy with
this decision because they have the rights to decide. But also, we should look
at our current condition, the Covid-19. It would be great to have another
general election but is this situation suitable for it?
I
hope the government and politicians involved would eventually do their best to
avoid conflict or unnecessary scenes. After all, what it is that they are
doing, is meant to be for the good of the country and its people.
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