Malaysian leader accused of seizing power after parliament’s suspension

Photographer: Samsul Said / Bloomberg

In explaining why Malaysia needed to suspend democracy for the first time in half a century to fight the pandemic, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin assured the nation that he was not staging a military coup.

But his opponents found it difficult to see the first national emergency since 1969 as anything more than a takeover. Although the Southeast Asian country has seen a sudden increase in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, along with many other countries, measures to combat the pandemic have generally received wide support across the political spectrum.

“Don’t hide behind Covid-19 and overwhelm people with an emergency declaration to save yourself,” Pakatan Harapan, the main opposition bloc in parliament, said in a statement after the announcement.

The only problem easily resolved by the emergency was Muhyiddin’s political problem: some key leaders of the ruling coalition’s largest partner, United Malays National Organization (UMNO), had recently called for a new election as soon as possible. Now, with parliament potentially suspended until August, the prime minister need not worry about an election anytime soon.

While the move brings stability to Malaysia for the first time since domestic political struggles at the beginning of last year overthrew a coalition government and brought Muhyiddin to power, it also poses a risk to the country’s democracy. Before the In the last election in 2018, the same governing coalition ruled for about six decades – often with violent tactics that sought to silence the media and opposition politicians.

Malaysia last saw a national emergency in 1969, when racial riots between ethnic and Chinese Malaysians led to the suspension of parliament for two years. The emergency is now “totally unnecessary” as the criteria for imposing one have not been met and “no parliamentarians are” on either side would block action to end the pandemic, according to Oh Ei Sun, a senior member of the Institute for Singapore for International Affairs.

“If you are not careful, we will slip from parliamentary democracy to a dictated government,” he said. “It’s addictive – future governments would once again invoke the state of emergency.”

Investors were cautious after the announcement, with the ringgit and the country’s main stock index falling on Tuesday. A blockade announced on Monday prompted Fitch Solutions to cut Malaysia’s economic growth forecast for 2021 from 11.5% earlier, to 10%, while warning that restrictions could last for months.