Anwar: Malaysia PM seeking emergency law to keep power

KUALA LUMPUR (AP) – Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said he is concerned about reports that Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is seeking the declaration of a state of emergency to fight the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as an excuse to suspend the Parliament so he can stymie bids to oust his government.

Local media has reported that Muhyiddin is seeking an emergency declaration to focus on battling a fresh coronavirus outbreak. Speculation intensified after he held a special Cabinet meeting on Friday and then held an audience with the king.

The king can declare a state of emergency that allows the country to be governed through ordinances that cannot be challenged in court.

Anwar met the king last week to try to convince the monarch that he already has enough support from lawmakers to topple Muhyiddin, whose government has only a two-seat majority in the Parliament.

A new wave of COVID-19 cases that saw Malaysia’s confirmed tally double to more than 24,000 in just three weeks prompted the king to delay the process of verifying Anwar’s claim.

Anwar said any emergency would clearly be aimed at keeping the government in power.

“We have a government which lacks legitimacy and which knows it would fail to demonstrate majority support in the Parliament, and is using the COVID-19 crisis as an excuse to justify its abuse of power,” Anwar said in a statement Friday.

Some media cited sources as saying that Muhyiddin is seeking an “economic emergency” to merely suspend the Parliament, without any curfew. The last time emergency laws were invoked was during deadly racial riots in 1969.

Officials at the prime minister’s office could not immediately be reached for comment.

Muhyiddin will face a key test of his support early next month when his government is due to seek approval for its 2021 budget in the Parliament. If he is unable to pass the bill, pressure will build for him to resign or call for a new election. An emergency could allow him to delay that vote and consolidate support.

Declaring an emergency in the absence of a threat to national security would be “nothing more than the descent into dictatorship and authoritarianism,” according to Anwar.

He said that it would also show the government’s incompetence in handling the pandemic.

“The government has failed to provide strong leadership in handling this crisis and is instead resorting to undemocratic means to stay in power,” he added.