No takers for Muhyiddin’s offer of a bipartisan govt

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 – On Friday, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin made several offers to the Opposition Members of Parliament including institutional reforms and higher budget allocations for their constituencies in exchange for their support during the upcoming motion of confidence in Parliament to ensure his continued leadership of the government.

While one or two voices from the Opposition were initially heard saying that the offer should at least be given some thought, the majority of MPs have turned down the offer, either saying that it was too late or such an offer was unconstitutional and not credible.

So far, there have been no takers for his offer. He, however, as reported earlier, has the backing of 100 MPs from the Perikatan Nasional government.

In a special address aired live by local television stations and via the social media platforms, Muhyiddin said he needed the support of the opposition as one way out of the country’s political impasse so that he could continue to carry out his responsibilities as prime minister.

Resigning would be an easier thing to do, but there are responsibilities to ensure that the government continues with its plan of recovery from the Covid-19 crisis as well as the economic downturn, he said, as he gave assurance that he would honour the offers he announced.

His offers include providing equal annual allocations for all MPs regardless of their political party. Government MPs now take close to RM4 million for their constituencies and office expenditure while Opposition MPs are allocated RM100,000 for their constituencies. He said this will be levelled if a bipartisan government is on.

He also said he would increase the Covid-19 funds to RM110 billion, and provide additional help for the people and also provide the opposition members half of the seats in the parliamentary select committees in exchange for the MPs support.

Other promises included tabling a law to amend the Federal Constitution to limit the term of the prime minister to just two terms.

He said the country needed to get back on track and this would come only with a stable government.

He also said no other MP currently enjoyed the majority support needed to be a Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, various parties have issued statements that they are not taking up the offer made by Muhyiddin.