KUALA LUMPUR: The ‘palace door government’ issue raised by Pontian MP Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan was among the hot topics of debate among the backbenchers and opposition lawmakers at the Dewan Rakyat today.
When tabling the motion of thanks for the royal address today, Ahmad said the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government is a valid government formed with the majority support from the Members of Parliament (MPs).
“Each of the 113 (government) MPs here has the people’s mandate. It is a valid ‘palace door’ government, not a ‘back door’ government.
“So, just stop accusing that the PN government is a back door government because such an accusation is an insult to the decision made by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah,” he said.
Ahmad said the appointment of Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as Prime Minister was made upon the consent of Al-Sultan Abdullah based on the King’s assessment on who had the majority support from the MPs.
He said many MPs had revealed that they had initially signed the statutory declaration (SC) to support Langkawi MP Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as the 8th Prime Minister.
“We did sign the SD to support Langkawi MP (Dr Mahathir), but then he resigned, so we gave our support to Pagoh MP (Muhyiddin) lah,” Datuk Seri Dr Shahidan Kassim (BN-Arau said when interjecting Ahmad’s speech.
However, Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham (PH-Beruas) also interjected and questioned the fact that the PN government was not formed by way of a general election.
“The back door government is not formed after a general election, that’s all. Get it?” he said.
At that juncture, Ahmad stood up and called for for the term ‘back door government’ and traitor’ be deemed ‘unparliamentary’. – Bernama
