From left to right: Yong, Kitingan, Hadi, Ismail Sabri, Muhyiddin, and Lau. — Picture courtesy of Facebook/Muhyiddin Yassin
KUALA LUMPUR (April 10): Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob must consult Perikatan Nasional (PN) before deciding a date for the dissolution of Parliament as the coalition is part of the government of the day, his predecessor Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said today.
Muhyiddin who is also the PN chairman said he relayed the message to Ismail Sabri during a meeting with component party leaders from PAS, Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia, Sabah Progressive Party and Sabah STAR at the prime minister’s official residence in Sri Perdana, Putrajaya yesterday.
“During our meeting, YAB Prime Minister stressed on the cooperation between PN within the federal government and gave his commitment to consult with PN in the determination of major national policies.
“I also reminded YAB Prime Minister that PN as a core party which formed the federal government must be consulted first in order to fix the date of an eventual dissolution of Parliament,” Muhyiddin said in a statement on his Facebook account this afternoon.
The Pagoh MP also shared a picture of himself, the PM and the six PN component party presidents – Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang (PAS), Senator Datuk Dominic Lau (Gerakan), Datuk Seri Yong Teck Lee (Sabah Progressive Party), Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan (Sabah STAR) – at the dining table.
Ismail Sabri is a vice-president of Umno, the lynchpin of the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition whose leaders have been increasingly at odds with component members of PN in recent months following the collapse of the Muhyiddin administration last August.
While the PN and BN coalitions are in government at the federal level, both have also butted heads against each other at the state level.
The most recent occasion was the Johor state election held on March 12 that saw the Umno-led BN win 40 out of the 56 seats contested. – Malay Mail