Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim won crucial backing for his premiership on Monday (December 19) when parliament passed a motion of confidence, helping consolidate his position as head of a royally-brokered “unity” government formed after last month’s election delivered a hung parliament.
The confidence motion was not a formal requirement but was held at the discretion of the 75-year-old premier in a bid to cement his legitimacy after rival and former premier Muhyiddin Yassin cast doubt on his support, accusing his Pakatan Harapan (PH) bloc of committing the “biggest electoral fraud ever” in cahoots with the former ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.
Neither the government nor the opposition pushed for lawmakers to vote individually; the confidence motion instead passed by a simple voice vote. But the government’s command of 148 out of 222 parliamentary seats, enough for a two-thirds majority to table and pass constitutional amendments, was ostensibly demonstrated through votes for the new house speaker and two deputies.
Hafidzi Razali, a senior analyst at the BowerGroupAsia consultancy, said the move “allowed Anwar to officially record his coalition’s numbers in the parliament, and not through untransparent political maneuvering,” a reference to the use of signed statutory declarations (SDs) from individual lawmakers that the two most recent administrations have relied on to shore up support.
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Nile Bowie is a journalist and correspondent with the Asia Times covering current affairs in Singapore and Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com.
