The Ruler’s historic and unprecedented statement on 1MDB, the thunderous silence of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet to the Rulers’ Statement and
the clarification of the UMNO Vice President and Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein are three new and important factors for UMNO/BN Members of Parliament to consider as to what stand they should take in any no-confidence motion against Datuk Seri Najib Razak as Prime Minister.

The Rulers’ statement before the 239th Conference of Rulers on Tuesday, 6th October 2015 is historic because it represented a valiant attempt to save Malaysia from “sleepwalking” towards a rogue state with a breakdown of the rule of law and a failed state because of rampant corruption, abuses of power and collapse of good governance.

What the Rulers said were nothing new, but it had the effect of a thunderclap on the populace because simple truths had been forced underground, patriotic attempts to uphold democracy, justice, accountability, integrity and good governance had been distorted as treasonous efforts to undermine parliamentary democracy and sabotage the nation in cahoots with international conspirators; or simply, white has become black and black turned into white.

The Rulers’ statement is like a pail of cold water splashed on a populace which had been drugged either by power or the threat of the abuse of power and represents a final warning of the urgent need for the country to wake up and return to sanity to deal with three urgent problems plaguing Malaysia today – the 1MBD scandal, the parlous state of the rule of law and the frayed and fragile state of national unity in the country.

The Rulers’ statement is unprecedented both in import and content, which makes the silence of the Prime Minister and Cabinet which met for its weekly Wednesday session yesterday, all the more phenomenal, thunderous and unforgivable.

The whole country, in fact the world which is concerned about developments in Malaysia, have woken up to the dangers in store for Malaysia if we continue are our present trajectory.

Could it be that the Prime Minister and the Cabinet are still “sleep-walking”?

Are the Prime Minister and the Cabinet the only exception in the country who do not endorse the Rulers’ statement and share their worry that if the issues confronting the nation are not handled wisely and allowed to drag on, not only Malaysia’s economy and the livelihood of the people could be jeopardized, public order and national security could also be threatened?

If further evidence is needed that Najib is no more suitable to be Prime Minister of Malaysia, his thunderous silence and that of his Cabinet to the Rulers’ Statement after their meeting yesterday would fit the bill.

Into this political cauldron, Hishammuddin’s clarification is most timely – that former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad had not betrayed UMNO by calling on Najib Razak to step down as Prime Minister and the voters of Pekan to vote out Najib in Pekan.

This acknowledgement by the top UMNO leadership that it is no breach of party discipline for any UMNO/BN MP to support any no-confidence motion against Najib where the successor-Prime Minister is from UMNO is welcome and sign of greater maturity in understanding the workings of parliamentary democracy.

Malaysia is in unchartered waters as far as no-confidence motion against the Prime Minister in Parliament is concerned, and developments can suddenly become very quick an dfast-paced.

Whatever is in store in the coming days, weeks and months, three factors which developed in the past 48 hours are new and important factors for UMNO/BN MPs to consider as to what stand they should take in any no-confidence motion against Najib as Prime Minister, viz:

• The Rulers’ historic and unprecedented statement on 1MDB, the rule of law and national unity on 6th Oct. 2015;

• The thunderous silence of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet to the Rulers’ statement; and

• Hishammuddin’s clarification on Oct. 6 that support by any UMNO/BN MP or leader for no confidence motion against Najib as Prime Minister is no breach of party discipline.

In these circumstances, will there be a motion of no confidence against Najib in the forthcoming Parliament beginning on Oct. 19, what are the chances of success of such a motion; and who is likely to succeed Najib as the Prime Minister of Malaysia?