Will the Cabinet tomorrow ask the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi to reaffirm his oaths as Deputy Prime Minister and Member of Parliament to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution, including Article 4 on the Malaysian Constitution as the supreme law of Malaysia?

In response to the Court of Appeal ruling that a child conceived out of wedlock can take his or her father’s surname, and that the edict on this by the National Fatwa Committee does not have the force of law, the call by Zahid for Muslim unity to oppose anyone challenging decisions by the National Fatwa Committee is contrary to what Zahid had sworn in his oaths of office as DPM and MP to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution.

Zahid is not only challenging the authority of the civil courts to make decisions affecting the life and liberty of Malaysians, but dishonouring his oaths as Deputy Prime Minister and Member of Parliament to “preserve, protect and defend” the Malaysian Constitution.

The Cabinet tomorrow should ask Zahid to retract his statement which challenges Article 4 of the Malaysian Constitution declaring unequivocally that the Constitution is the “supreme law” in Malaysia.

Former Federal Court judge Tan Sri Gopal Sri Ram has said that both Zahid and the National Registration Department (NRD) director-general Mohd Yazid Ramli may be looking at serious legal repercussions, including jail time, for their responses to the Court of Appeal’s landmark decision regarding out of wedlock Muslim children.

There is an appeal against the Court of Appeal judgement, but an appeal does not operate as a stay of execution.

The statement by the NRD director-general that the NRD would not abide by the appellate’s court decision pending an appeal is clearly wrong, contumacious and amounts to a wilful contempt of court – and the usual punishment for serious and willful contempt is imprisonment.

Apart from the legal consequences for contempt of the Court of Appeal decision, Zahid must also answer the political consequences for his contempt for Article 4 of the Malaysian Constitution and his breaches of his oaths of offices as Deputy Prime Minister and Member of Parliament to “preserve, protect and defend” the Malaysian Constitution.

No other Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister had in the past 60 years broken his oaths of office or acted with such contempt of the Malaysian Constitution.

Malaysians wait for bated breath for the outcome of the Cabinet’s meeting tomorrow, or will the 35 Ministers collectively behave like the traditional three monkeys, with eyes that see not, ears that hear not and mouths that speak not?

[Media Conference Statement (3)in Parliament on Thursday, 3rd August 2017 at 12 noon]