COMMENT | We can pass Budget 2021 without emergency rule

COMMENT | The prime minister and members of the cabinet apparently met with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong recently. The country is facing a large increase in the number of people infected and suffering from Covid-19 in the current global pandemic.

The supply bill to authorise and fund the government for 2021 (which we call the Budget) has also not been passed yet. The current administration apparently does not think they have the votes to pass the budget.

So, the cabinet has apparently given “various options” to our constitutional monarch, including recommending a Proclamation of Emergency.

Article 150 does not allow an emergency to be declared for public health concerns

Article 150 of the Federal Constitution allows a Proclamation of Emergency over the whole or parts of the federation to be made by the Agong when he is “satisfied” that a “grave emergency exists whereby the security, or the economic life, or public order” in the whole or a part of Malaysia is “threatened” or “imminent”...