THE Washington Post, on May 8, had described Malaysia's politics as "messy", filled with the "all-too-familiar mix of political intrigue and horse trading", and that the "recent political upheaval" had brought back "elements of the old regime into a shaky new government".
It was not an unexpected comment from an American newspaper. A constitutional lawyer, nevertheless, reminded me that Malaysia practises parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy. Dewan Rakyat has 222 elected Members of Parliament (MPs), while Dewan Negara has 70 appointed senators.
Under our parliamentary democracy framework, the constitutional monarch's role in appointing a prime minister is at the tail-end of a political process. Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's claim to command the confidence of the majority in late February was subsequently contradicted by the statutory declarations signed by 114 MPs in support of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
In such a situation of "political uncertainty", the proper thing to do is to allow the political process to play out in Parliament. If Perikatan Nasional indeed has the majority, there is nothing to fear.
Unfortunately, the one-day sitting on Monday made this impossible. Will there be such an opportunity in the near future?
I made sure I was at home on Monday to catch on television the drama unfolding at Parliament House — the opening of the third session of the 14th Parliament.
It was a historical event, filled with many "firsts". It was the first time in our parliamentary history that its sitting ended immediately after the royal address, which lasted only 30 minutes. It was the first time that our MPs had on face masks, and sat in their allocated places one seat apart from each other, in compliance with the new norm of social distancing.
It was also the first time that members of the same political party sat in different locations in the house — one segment sitting together with the government, another segment sitting with the opposition.
The new seating arrangement, with some lawmakers seated at the gallery on the top floor, showed that it is feasible for Parliament to have a longer session, without having to resort to a hybrid or virtual sitting.
Bearing in mind that the government is working to implement its RM260 billion stimulus package (to save the economy as well as save lives) the extremely short session gave no chance for the MPs to raise questions or have a debate.
Perikatan Nasional is now in control in nine states — Perlis, Kedah, Perak, Melaka, Johor, Pahang, Terengganu, Kelantan and Sarawak.
Only Penang and Selangor remain under Pakatan Harapan. Ergo, that so-called "shaky image" is no longer true, as far as state governments are concerned.
The writer is a former federal counsel at the Attorney-General's Chambers, and is deputy chairman of the Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War