Datuk Seri Najib Razak should declare his stand well before Parliament’s resumption after the Deepavali break on Monday, whether he will resign as Prime Minister if his 2016 Budget is rejected by Parliament during it second reading on Monday.
This has become an issue as the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and Gerakan President, Datuk Mah Siew Keong told Sin Chew Daily that there is no need for Najib to resign as Prime Minister even if the 2016 Budget is rejected by Parliament.
This is turning accepted parliamentary conventions and practices on their head but for this perversion of parliamentary tradition to come from the President of a political party which had prided itself as “the conscience” of the Barisan Nasional coalition government indicates the degree of depravity and degradation this political party had undergone in order to hang on to the few perks of office and position in government.
Regardless of the outcome of the Parliamentary vote on Monday, Najib should declare his stand on whether he would resign as Prime Minister if the 2016 budget is rejected, or he would hang on to office, both as Prime Minister and Finance Minister, regardless of the outcome of the parliamentary vote?
This may appear to be an academic question as a rejection of Najib’s 2016 Budget on Monday will be the greatest parliamentary and political surprise in the nation’s history, but a very important principle of democratic and good governance is involved.
Did Mah merely state his personal take of the perversion of parliamentary traditions and conventions, or had Najib spoken to Mah in confidence that regardless of the outcome of a parliamentary vote on the 2016 Budget, he would continue as Prime Minister and Finance Minister come “hell or high water”?
The time has also come for all leaders and Ministers of the Barisan Nasional component parties whether they subscribe to the parliamentary tradition and convention that Najib will have to step down as Prime Minister if his 2016 Budget is voted out in Parliament on Monday, or whether they agree with Mah’s parliamentary perversion that Najib need not resign as Prime Minister and Finance Minister even if the 2016 Budget is rejected by Parliament on Monday.