KOTA KINABALU: The dissolution of Parliament is inevitable amid the current push by the Opposition to topple the Perikatan Nasional government of Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, says Datuk Yong Teck Lee.

"It is only a matter of time (before the dissolution of Parliament)," said the Sabah Progressive party (SAPP) president, whose party is part of the Perikatan coalition government at the national level and the Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) coalition at the state level.

He said a general election (GE) had always been on the cards for the Perikatan government but the Covid-19 pandemic had put it on the backburner.

"Even without the impending Parliament vote of confidence (next month), a GE has been planned. Then the pandemic worsened.

"But, people don't want an election or political instability during the pandemic," he said when asked whether the Perikatan coalition was looking at the possible dissolution of Parliament after Umno, with at least a dozen MPs, pulling out their support for Muhyiddin and Perikatan.

He said the current political situation in Malaysia was an expected consequence of the fall of the once-dominant Umno in May 2018.

"Malaysia is now undergoing a period of adjustments among competing forces and interests before reaching a new equilibrium and return to political stability.

"This will take a few more years and one or, at most two, general elections to sort out," said Yong, a former Sabah chief minister and a nominated assemblyman.

Among the new political equilibrium, he said that the Malaysian states in Borneo were hoping to see full compliance with the Malaysia Agreement 1963 that provides for the rights and autonomy for Sabah and Sarawak.

On a question of whether Perikatan was ready for an election, he said that Perikatan would be able to improve the number of its MPs through its coalition partners Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), PAS, Sabah STAR as well Perikatan-aligned GRS parties in Sabah.

On the other hand, Umno is on its own and splintered, he said, adding that Umno was not keen to face a general election as they want to take over the prime minister's post without an election.

In Sabah, he said the Opposition Warisan will be able to win fewer seats as it does not have the backing of any of the national parties - Barisan, Perikatan or Pakatan Harapan - unlike in the previous 2018 election where Warisan was working with Pakatan.

Yong anticipated that Pakatan would do well in urban and semi-urban seats but would come third in the Malay heartland.

"But DAP, even though it is the single biggest block in Parliament now, has proven to be impotent," he added.

As such, he said Perikatan, under the leadership of Muhyiddin, would remain a strong force against Pakatan's Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim while Umno has yet to shore up their likely choice to lead them.

Yong attended the Perikatan meeting in Kuala Lumpur with Muhyiddin on Wednesday (Aug 11) via video conference.

The possibility of a general election is believed to be among the matters discussed at the meeting after reports that Istana Negara had asked Muhyiddin to bring forward the Parliamentary vote of confidence to next week.

It is speculated that Muhyiddin is expected to stay with the scheduled Sept 6 date for the Dewan Rakyat to sit.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2021/08/12/dissolution-of-parliament-increasingly-inevitable-says-sapp-president