Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, better known as Ku Li to Malaysians, has made public an exchange he had with the Speaker of Malaysia's Parliament.
In the evening of Oct. 15, the veteran UMNO Member of Parliament posted two letters on Facebook.
The first was a letter he wrote to the Speaker. The second was the reply from the Speaker.
Motion of no-confidence
The first letter, dated Sep. 25, called on Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun to allow a Motion of No-Confidence against Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin during the next sitting of Parliament.
Tengku Razaleigh asked the Speaker why the Motion of No-Confidence was not debated during the previous sittings of Parliament in July and August.
He said the motion should have been debated in Parliament to allow Muhyiddin's government to prove its legitimacy.
According to Malay Mail, Tengku Razaleigh cited Article 43 of the Federal Constitution, which states that a prime minister must have the confidence of Parliament in order to officially assume the post.
He also said there were no provisions in the Standing Orders that prevent the Motion from being debated, and added:
"Without the confidence of the Dewan Rakyat, the Prime Minister has no right to claim legitimacy and sidestepping the fact can be construed as a form of bad intention and falsehood towards the Constitution.
Therefore, all executions of governmental affairs must be based on the prerequisite that the Prime Minister has the support of the Dewan Rakyat."
Advisor to Petronas
Tengku Razaleigh also claimed that he was offered the post of advisor in Petronas, the government-owned oil and gas company.
He said:
"For your information, the prime minister has offered me the position of Petronas Advisor, which was once offered to the former prime minister, but I declined the offer."
He did not name the former prime minister in question.
He said he rejected the offer out of concern for an Article in the Federal Constitution that disqualifies an MP if he holds an "office of profit".
You can see the post below:
Government matters must take priority
In his reply, dated Sep. 29, the Speaker told Tengku Razaleigh that he has no objections for a Motion of No-Confidence to be tabled.
However, he said that he is abiding by Standing Order 15(1), which states that government business should take precedence over other motions during a Parliament sitting.
He also dismissed the claim that the Motion was not debated because it was placed toward the end of the Order Paper.
Instead, government matters had to be given priority.
The current Speaker was recently appointed on July 13, 2020 after Muhyiddin narrowly won a vote to remove the previous Speaker from his position.
Anwar's bid for PM
PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim announced on Sep. 23 that he had majority support in Parliament, two days before Tengku Razaleigh's letter.
Since then, he held an audience with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Malaysia's king to present his claim.
The king has also summoned politicians and party leaders to meet with him following Anwar's audience.
One of those who met with the king on the same day as Anwar was Tengku Razaleigh, according to Yahoo.
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Top image from Ku Li's Facebook page. Photo from 2018.