COMMENT The focus of legislative business when Malaysian Parliament resumes sitting on Oct 19, apart from the 2016 National Budget, would be: who will bring forth either a confidence motion or a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

The following questions are what everyone has in mind and being concerned, regarding the Members of Parliament (MPs) in the October Parliament meeting:

1. Will Najib propose a confidence motion for himself, in order to address the crisis of confidence he is facing?

2. Will other members of the cabinet propose a confidence motion for Najib?

3. Will the BN backbenchers, either individually or collectively, propose either a motion of confidence in, or a no-confidence motion against, Najib?

4. Will the non-BN MPs, either individually or collectively, propose a no-confidence motion against Najib?

5. If neither of the above actions occurr, or such action is being vetoed by the Speaker's Office, will the Parliament witness a historic moment of the Budget being defeated?

About 40 years ago, on the next day after the second Prime Minister Abdul Razak Hussein ( photo ) died of illness in London, which was Jan 15, 1976, the father of the current vice-president of Umno and also the Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, that is, Hussein Onn, took over as the third prime minister in a hurry. In that year, during a Parliament meeting, a motion regarding the new prime minister Hussein Onn was debated and passed.

This is the first confidence motion for a prime minister in the history of the Malaysian Parliament. It was not the prime minister himself who proposed the motion, but a BN senator, Wan Ibrahim Wan Tanjong.

This is the summary of the motion: The Dewan congratulates Yang Amat Berhormat Datuk Hussein bin Datuk Onn for being appointed by His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong as the third Prime Minister of Malaysia, and gives him full support and cooperation for him to fulfill his great responsibility as the Prime Minister.

This motion was successfully brought up to the Parliament under Sections 13(1), 25 and 26 of the parliamentary Standing Orders, and was passed with four absentees and 20 MPs participating in the debate.

On Aug 2, 1973, then deputy prime minister Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman died of heart attack. The biographer of Ismail, Dr Ooi Kee Beng, said in the book “The Reluctant Politician: Tun Dr Ismail and His Time” that, as Ismail died, then prime minister Razak "surprised many" by appointing Hussein Onn as the deputy prime minister.

Call for Tan Siew Sin to be made DPM II

At that time, the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) was demanding that Razak appoints then MCA president, Tan Siew Sin, as deputy prime minister II. Tan "was deeply disappointed on being told" that Hussein Onn was to be appointed as deputy prime minister, and questioned "in disbelief": “What about me?”

In the following year, Tan ( photo ) resigned as MCA president and finance minister in the Razak cabinet, on health reasons. Until now, MCA has not only been able to get to taste the glory of its member being appointed as deputy prime minister, but the party also lost the post of finance minister, a key cabinet post.

In less then two-and-a-half years after Ismail's death, Razak died unexpectedly. Under the trend, Hussein Onn took over as prime minister in a hurry, and took up the positions as finance minister, defence minister, and minister of coordination of public corporations.

In order to enhance the prospect of legitimate rule, Hussein onn decided to do it through a parliamentary motion of confidence, and that was a wise move.

By looking into the background of Wan Ibrahim, who brought up the motion, one can see how much Hussein Onn, who was carrying four cabinet posts at the same time, attached importance to this motion.

Wan Ibrahim is a descendant of a noble family in the history of the Pahang Sultanate.

Having the pedigree implanted in the local political culture, and on the fact that the Parliament of Malaya/Malaysia had only 17 years of history at that time, by having a representative of the noble class with close historical ties with the royals, to propose a confidence motion in the Parliament, would show that Hussein Onn had a certain requirement in handling details.

Based on my limited local reading experience, out of all the prime ministers of Malaysia in history, the historical status of Hussein is given the least importance, and there is less discussion by the academicians and the public on his political life during his rule compared to other prime ministers.

Perhaps, because of this, if not because of Najib facing a crisis of confidence today, this historic moment of the Parliament in 1976 would not attract attention.

No confidence motion against Abdullah Ahmad Badawi

After 32 years, everyone in the country were still immersed in the year of the political tsunami, when the first female Leader of the Opposition of Malaysian Parliament, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, together with another 14 MPs from Pakatan Rakyat, proposed a no-confidence motion against then prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

This is the summary of the motion: We are proposing a motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, because the way he and his cabinet ministers handled the national executive tasks, had caused the people to lose confidence on the integrity of the government.

The motion had no chance to get into the Dewan, as it was being vetoed in the Speaker's Office, under Section 18(7) of the parliamentary Standing Orders, on the grounds that the Bill states that a vote has to be taken on the no-confidence motion but the provision it was filed under was to seek "negotiation".

However, under Sections 27(3) and 45(1) of the parliamentary Standing Orders, it is still possible to table a motion of no confidence against the prime minister.

Standing Order 27(3) states that, "except as provided in Standing Order 43 and in paragraph (5) of Standing Order 86 and 26(1), not less than fourteen days’ notice of any motion shall be given unless it is in the name of a Minister, in which case seven days’ notice or, if Tuan Yang di-Pertua is satisfied upon representation to him by a Minister that the public interest requires that a motion should be debated as soon as possible, one day’s notice shall be sufficient."

And a resolution thereof, is provided under the Standing Order 45(1), which states that "subject to the provisions of Clause (1) of Article 89 of the Constitution and Clause (3) of Article 159 of the Constitution and these Orders, the House shall, in accordance with the provisions of Clause (3) of Article 62 of the Constitution take its decision by a simple majority of members voting; and Tuan Yang di-Pertua or any other person presiding shall cast his vote whenever necessary to avoid an equality of votes, but shall not vote in any other case provided that where Tuan Yang di-Pertua is a member of the House by virtue only of paragraph (b) of Clause (1A) of Article 57 of the Constitution, he shall have no casting vote in the House or in any Committee thereof."

Following the crisis of confidence Najib is facing now, the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat, Pandikar Amin Mulia, said that the Standing Orders of the Parliament of Malaysia does not stated that an MP may propose a no-confidence motion against the prime minister. By reviewing two of the (no-)confidence motions that occurred in the history of the Parliament of Malaysia, it shows that Pandikar's statement can be contested.

OOI HENG is executive director of the think-tank Kajian Politik Untuk Perubahan (KPRU or Political Studies for Change).