Rise and Fall of a Government

Many detractors of Tun Dr Mahathir blamed him for causing the fall of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government in February 2020. They blamed him for quitting his position for no apparent reasons whatsoever. To be honest, none of us (save for a select few) really know what had happened behind the curtains and behind Tun's thick skull. As long as we are not Tun himself or those select few, we are all merely speculating at best.

To me, I just want to focus on what Tun had said publicly because those are on record and no one can really dispute them. Tun had repeatedly said that he had resigned because he no longer had the support of the parliament as Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu). Two things here, mathematically, what Tun said about the his support from the parliament is true. Secondly, this was what Tun had said, what really went behind the scene was really up to anyone's guess.

For one moment, let us just take Tun's words at their face value. The moment Tun felt that he had lost his grip over Bersatu, mathematically, he no longer had the majority support of the members of parliament (MPs). And the most rightful thing for him to do is to see the King and informed him of the predicament and either offered his resignation or advice the King to dissolve the parliament to make way for a fresh new election.

For reasons only known to him and/or the King, the parliament was not dissolved and that he had resigned from the office of prime minister. Whether that was a good or a bad decision, history will pass its judgement. But, I would like to highlight here, in a Westminster parliamentary system, I would prefer for a prime minister to resign or advice to dissolve the parliament once he believes that he no longer command the majority support of the lower house.

Never in my life I would want a prime minister that would use whatever power/tools at his disposal to remain in power. Granted that Tun should have discussed it with the coalition partners, but that's another story. The point that I am trying to make is that, whenever a prime minister believes or thinks that he no longer has the majority support of the parliament, he is obligated to convey this to the King and advice him accordingly.