GPS will be joining the unity government that will be led by newly minted Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, as per the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s decree.
Its chief Abang Johari Openg said the Sarawak-based ruling coalition abides by the Agong’s decree, saying His Majesty wants a strong and stable government.
“The Agong advised us to form a unity government to overcome the political impasse.
“We obey the constitutional monarchy and the Rukun Negara clearly states that we must obey the king, even though we don’t have a king in Sarawak,” he told a press conference today.
Last night Abang Jo was pledging to only support PAS controlled-PN, for reasons most Sarawakians are wondering very angrily about.
This was AFTER he had last seen the Agong, but while he still plainly hoped that his pal Hishamuddin would pull off his treacherous move to snatch the leadership of his BN party and then the country.
Now, far too belatedly, Abang Jo is claiming that some ‘Decree’ by the Agong has instructed for him to be part of a Unity Government.
This is not how the Constitution of Malaysia works. Much as the ceremony and ‘Swearing In’ at the palace may have made for a great news story and a symbolic acceptance (at last) of the fact PH won most seats at this election, it is not for the Agong to ‘Decree’ the nature of his government.
That will be confirmed by Parliament when Anwar demonstrates what has become obvious (even at last to the King) which is that he commands a majority of MPs. It is for Anwar to appoint his coalition colleagues following negotiations between themselves.
However, owing primarily to his crass behaviour of the past few days, Abang Jo is not part of that configuration. It was not thanks to GPS ‘Kingmaking’ that Anwar achieved his numbers, but thanks to the majority of BN’s MPs, whom Abang Jo sought to destabilise with his plotting with PN and the likes of Hishamuddin and Ismail Sabri.
Abang Jo may be desperate now to jump on the bandwaggon with his GPS lackeys. But they have all shown they had preferred to work instead to support a PAS led coalition, and had been prepared to actively undermine the collaboration between PH and BN designed to achieve a stable government.
The Agong may have ‘Decreed’ a unity government, but he cannot decree that Anwar gives any of these GPS chancers a single seat in his slimmed down cabinet – and nor should he!