Malaysia needs strong plan to keep everyone safe and healthy, says Ali

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Ali Biju

KUCHING (Oct 25): What Malaysia needs now is a strong plan to keep everyone safe and healthy, as well as an economic driven strategy to keep local industries and businesses running smoothly, says Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Ali Biju today.

“The last thing we need is to spook our foreign investors with political uncertainties. And for the government to continue to drive the fight against this (Covid-19) pandemic and for economic recovery to continue uninterrupted, we need a stable political landscape,” he said in a statement in response to a recent commentary “Unconstitutional to declare emergency – Tommy Thomas” published by The Vibes.

As engineer, Ali, who is Saratok MP said he had been trained to always build a fail-safe “Pause or Emergency Button (pun intended)” into any device constructed to ensure that there was always a security feature.

He said he would rather ask logical engineering questions such as whether the people would get hurt when the government hit the “Pause Button” on politicking and instead, focused on fighting Covid-19 and healing the economy.

“Why insist on wanting the opportunity to defeat the government in Parliament which would have the effect of causing the whole nation to go to the polls when there are real health hazards and dangers out there?”

“From what I have been made to understand, the Emergency Order that is being speculated to be announced soon does not entail military rule or curfews nor any restrictions on economic activities.

“In other words, the rakyat is not going to be burdened at all and it will be business as usual for the shopkeeper towkays and the captains of industries. Taxi drivers still get to drive and Tan Sri’s still get to invest in the stock market.

“Only Parliament would be suspended, political activities limited, and wannabe superheroes cannot get to spook anyone with their strong, convincing, and formidable superpowers. So what seems to be the problem to the rakyat or the economy?” he pointed out.

According to Ali, his engineering logic tells him that disagreeing with an emergency means agreeing to election during a raging pandemic.

He opined that the legalese of Thomas simply defied the rational logic of an engineer.

“Let us all be rational and reasonable people for once and hit the Pause Button. I, for one, call for less politicking but instead more working on what really matter for the nation – stabilising the government, fighting Covid-19 and restoring our economy,” Ali added.

In the commentary, Thomas said a proclamation of emergency under Article 150 of the Federal Constitution had tremendous negative consequences on the nation’s body politic and the exercise of freedoms and liberties by citizens.

“Article 150(1) provides that if the Agong is satisfied that a grave emergency exists, whereby the security, economic life or public order in Malaysia is threatened, he may issue a proclamation of emergency.

“Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, and the Agong acts on the advice of the prime minister insofar as Article 150 is concerned. Hence, the true decision-maker is the prime minister, but the king has a residual discretion.

“In other words, it is not automatic that every time a prime minister desires a proclamation, the Agong must agree to it. The Agong is entitled to seek the advice of the Conference of Rulers, or indeed anyone whose advice the Agong values,” added Thomas.