Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Friday (Aug 13) offered a bipartisan partnership to opposition members in light of a destabilised government.

In the premier’s announcement, he said if the government manages bipartisan support antihopping laws and a limit on the Prime Minister’s term will be passed.

The lucrative deal also included the immediate passing of Undi 18, bisection parliamentary reforms with Opposition and RM 300,000 for each MP as pandemic assistance for their constituency.

However, opposition Members of Parliament were hasty to turn down the offer. The Pakatan Harapan coalition council believed they are can create a better plan for the pandemic.

They said, “This is the first time in Malaysian history where a Prime Minister admitted he lost the majority support and yet openly tries to entice support from the Opposition.”

Although Pakatan Harapan strongly believes they can pilot Parliament, the numbers as of today (Aug 14) favour Perikatan Nasional.

As reported by Astro Awani, the PN coalition holds 100 Parliament seats and the PH coalition with 89.

Due to the coalition numbers, the outcome foreseen for the confidence vote in September is that Perikatan Nasional will officially lose the majority but maintain government control.

Azalina Said Othman, the deputy speaker of Parliament, wrote on Friday (Aug 13) if no representation of the majority can be achieved, the King can ask the former Prime Minister, in this instance Muhyiddin, to offer himself as a minority government.

With opposition parties pressuring for the vote immediately, the olive branch by the Prime Minister seemingly represents cooperation between coalitions. Muhyiddin is playing an intricate game of house of cards to ensure a functional government runs during a pandemic.

If Pakatan Harapan cannot conjure up more Parliament support, ousting Muhyiddin would have been a moot point.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE