BN supreme council did not discuss controversial MoU

SHAH ALAM - MIC claims that the conditions contained in the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the component coalitions in the government were never discussed by the Barisan Nasional (BN).

Its secretary general, RT Rajasekaran pointed out that BN supreme council had never called any meeting before the coalition decided to sign it last week adding that the last meeting its upper echelons had was on November 22.

He stressed that under the BN Constitution, the chairman of the coalition does not have the authority to make any decisions relating to BN MPs without consulting the component parties in the coalition.

"It also applies to the Statutory Declaration (SD) which was supposedly signed by BN members of Parliament before the 15th General Election (GE15). The SD was never ratified and approved by the BN supreme council.

"I also believe that not all BN MPs had signed the SD.

"I am raising the SD issue here, if there is a counter-argument that the BN chairman had been given unlimited power under the SD," he said as quoted in an Astro Awani report on Sunday.

On Thursday, the five major political party alliances namely PH, BN, GPS, GRS and Warisan signed an MoU in Putrajaya to form Unity Government.

The MoU was signed by PH secretary general, Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail; BN secretary general, Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir, GRS secretary general, Datuk Masidi Manjun; GPS secretary general, Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi, and Warisan secretary general, Datuk Loretto Padua Jr, witnessed by all the coalition chairmen involved.

Among the conditions in the Unity Government agreement document is binding any Member of Parliament who fails, refuses and is negligent to maintain the legitimacy of the Malaysian Unity Government in any vote in Parliament to vacate their seats immediately.

The document explains among other things that each coalition party must vote to support the Prime Minister in motions related to motions of confidence, supplies and or any motions in the form of procedures that have an effect on the legitimacy of the Federal Government.

Also outlined is that each party must be responsible for managing internally to ensure Parliament's support to maintain the Malaysian Unity Government in any vote.

In the meantime, Rajasekaran who is also a legal practitioner claimed that until today, he does not believe that any of the component parties were given a copy of the SD that they had previously executed.

Therefore, he questioned how the BN chairman Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi implemented the MoU without obtaining the approval of the supreme council.

Rajasekaran also believes that neither the component parties nor members of the BN Supreme Council were given a copy of the MoU to review and give their opinion on the terms of the agreement.

"This clearly shows that the MoU cannot bind any Member of Parliament if the BN supreme council does not ratify the agreement.

"It also does not suit the duty of any member of Parliament to bind themselves to this government without first taking into account the best interests of their voters," he said.

He also questioned on what would happen if the government's policy is not in line with the objectives and principles of each component party in BN.

"What if each member of Parliament does not decide on any particular policy and law based on their awareness and best interest for their voters.

"It seems that no matter how bad the government's policies are or how unpopular or unfair the government is, MPs have to support the government for fear of losing their seats," he said.

He also believed that the matter was not the objective of the anti-party hopping law approved by the previous government.