MIC sec-gen unhappy with MOA, calls for it to be discarded

BN supreme council member RT Rajasekaran has expressed his unhappiness over the memorandum of agreement (MOA) between Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and leaders of several parties ahead of tomorrow's confidence vote in the Dewan Rakyat.

He questioned the transparency that went into securing the agreement and called for it to be discarded.

"It is my belief that the MOA is not legally binding on the MPs and should be disregarded as of right. It is a disgrace to a democratically elected Parliament and will make Malaysia a disgrace in the eyes of the world if it is enforced," he said in a statement today.

Rajasekeran, who is also MIC secretary-general and a practising lawyer, stressed that he was making the statement in a personal capacity and as a member of the BN supreme council.

The MOA was signed by Anwar of Pakatan Harapan, BN chairperson Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Sabah Chief Minister Hajiji Noor, Sarawak Premier Abang Johari Openg, and Warisan president Shafie Apdal.

A controversial clause in the agreement was Article 4 - which stipulated that MPs in the unity government who fail to vote or support the prime minister in motions like confidence votes, supply bills, or procedural motions relating to the federal government’s stability would be deemed to have resigned for their elected seats.

As a result, the MP’s seat will be vacated in accordance with Article 49A (1) of the Federal Constitution, and the MP’s party must notify the Dewan Rakyat speaker of the vacancy, for a notice to be given to the Election Commission to hold a by-election.

Rajasekeran said that as far as the BN supreme council was concerned, it had met on Nov 22 and made a clear decision that BN will not support either Harapan or Perikatan Nasional and would henceforth stand as an opposition in the coming Parliament.

However, subsequent to this, they were informed that the Agong had asked BN to join a unity government, and component parties in BN then agreed to support this unity government out of respect to the king’s decree.

"It seems to me that it is also clear that under the BN constitution, the BN chairperson cannot and does not have the power to make any decision pertaining to the BN MPs in fiat and without consulting the component parties in BN.

"It must also be noted that from Nov 22 until today, no BN supreme council meeting has been called. Therefore, the terms of the MOA were never discussed or agreed upon by the BN supreme council.

"This also applies to the statutory declarations (SDs), purportedly signed by BN MPs before the general election, the SDs were never endorsed and approved by the BN supreme council,” said Rajasekeran.

‘It cannot bind any MPs’

He added that his belief was that neither the component party nor the members of the supreme council were given copies of the MOA to vet and give their opinion on the terms of the agreement.

"Clearly, it cannot and should not bind any MPs if the BN supreme council had not earlier endorsed the said agreement.

"This MOA must also be compared and differentiated with the agreement that was executed by the previous government with the opposition MPs.

"In that agreement, there were no terms to compel any MP to vote a certain way and certainly there were no punitive consequences if the particular MP voted against the government," he said in reference to the agreement to support former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

MIC’s sole representative in the Dewan Rakyat is Tapah MP M Saravanan.

Rajasekeran also said that it is also incompatible with MPs’ duties to tie themselves to this government without first considering their constituents’ best interests.

"I believe this is not the objective of the anti-hopping law that was passed by the previous government.

"The anti-hopping law was primarily meant to stop any MP from jumping parties after being elected under a particular party’s platform and banner. The anti-hopping law was never meant to be used as a subterfuge for MPs to support any bills and to vote for the government of the day.

"The MOA is a clear usurpation of the parliamentarians’ rights in a democratically elected Parliament.

"If it is allowed to stand, it is the greatest threat to a democratically elected Parliament, and MPs now have to fear the threat of losing their seat if they disagree with the government of the day instead of listening to the voters," he said.

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