KUALA LUMPUR: A State Operations Council should manage the administration of Melaka and is a better alternative to holding an election.
Pakatan Harapan (PH) Communications Director Fahmi Fadzil said the council should comprise representatives from all political parties and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) binding their commitments must also be signed by all quarters involved.
He said to realise the establishment of the body, a Declaration of Emergency must be made first.
"One way out is a MoU between all parties in Melaka, government and opposition parties, forming a body such as the State Operations Council. But it is necessary to declare an emergency first.
"The State Operations Council, which comprises all political parties, can serve from nine to 10 months before the 15th General Election (GE-15) can be held when the time is right," he told BH today.
Melaka Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Sulaiman Md Ali, dissolved the state assembly after losing majority in the state assembly when four lawmakers withdrew their support to his leadership.
The four assemblymen are former Melaka Chief Minister Datuk Seri Idris Haron (BN-Sungai Udang), Datuk Nor Azman Hassan (BN-Pantai Kundor), Datuk Norhizam Hassan Baktee (Independent-Pengkalan Batu) and Noor Effendi.
Fahmi described the move to hold the state polls in the next 60-days as inappropriate due to the risk of the Covid-19 pandemic making a comeback after showing a decline in recent days.
He said political maturity was needed now to manage the crisis in Melaka, to prevent the people from becoming victims if the situation becomes bad again.
"I see the basic issue here is a political problem between politicians from Umno but it seems like the entire state of Melaka has been dragged into the issue.
"If we hold the state election in Melaka, we see that what had happened in Sabah can be repeated and we are anxious about this," he said.
Parti Ikatan Demokratik Malaysia (MUDA) secretary -general Amira Aisya claimed the move by the four state assemblymen in withdrawing their support for the Melaka Chief Minister was because of political power play involving Umno and Perikatan Nasional.
He said although the action was valid according to the letter of the law, it did not reflect the respect for the mandate and power of the people that had been in place since GE-14.
"It just ignores the welfare of the people who have sacrificed so long to ensure the situation in Malaysia recovers. Now the sacrifice of all Malaysians has been thrown away just for the sake of the power involving a handful of politicians," she said.
The State Legislative Assembly has 28 seats with 14 seats held by Barisan Nasional (BN), Bersatu (2), DAP (7), PKR (2), Amanah (2), and Independent (1).
In the 14th General Election, PH won 15 seats while 13 seats were captured by BN. It saw PH forming the state government, with Amanah's Adly Zahari becoming the chief minister.
However, in March last year, two Bersatu assemblymen and one each from PKR and DAP switched allegiance, which saw Sulaiman becoming the chief minister after gaining the majority required.
