Malaysian parliament to sit this month after Covid suspension

Kuala Lumpur

MALAYSIA'S parliament will sit this month after being suspended in January under a coronavirus emergency, the government said Monday, following criticism the embattled premier was using the crisis to cling to power.

The king declared a nationwide state of emergency at the start of the year on the advice of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to fight an escalating Covid-19 outbreak. Parliament was suspended at the same time, leading critics to accuse Mr Muhyiddin, who took office last year, of using the emergency to shore up his weak coalition and avoid a no-confidence vote.

But anger mounted sharply, and even the king himself recently called for the legislature to reconvene before the emergency officially ends in August to debate the government's pandemic response.

The prime minister's office said the government had agreed to a five-day sitting of the lower house of Parliament from July 26. The sitting will centre on the government's recovery plans, and changes on how future Parliament sessions can be held during the pandemic.

The upper house will also sit for several days. Parliament's last session - during which Mr Muhyiddin's government narrowly managed to pass its budget - ended in December.

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Analysts downplayed the chance of anything dramatic happening at the short Parliament sitting, however.

"It would appear that Muhyiddin is now convinced that he commands a parliamentary majority," said Oh Ei Sun, an analyst at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. AFP