NOVEMBER 21 — Malaysia is at a crossroads!

Nobody can say for sure who our new government will be.

Will it be a Perikatan Nasional (PN) led government with Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) or a Pakatan Harapan (PH) led government with Barisan Nasional (BN).

Ahmad Zahid as head of Umno and BN is keen to work with PH with Anwar Ibrahim as the PM but not all Umno MPs agree with him. Also, MCA’s two MPs are also not in favour to go along with him. They know they will be sidelined by DAP’s 40 MPs.

As long as Zahid refuses to sign any letter to support PN, BN’s 30 MPs and PH’s 82 MPs will deny anyone to form the government. Of course MCA’s two MPs and MIC’s one MP can join PN to create the majority but I think Umno MPs cannot do so as it will trigger by-elections under the new anti-hopping law.

This law allows parties to switch sides but not individuals. But I believe Anwar would have sealed some agreements with some of the small parties from Sabah to make up for the two MCA MPs.

Hence PN is hoping to produce enough Statutory Declarations (SD) with some Umno MPs and the two MCA MPs together with GPS and GRS to convince the Agong to give him (Muhyiddin Yassin) the letter of appointment.

History tends to repeat itself. Like the ‘Sheraton Move’, Muhyiddin got the appointment letter (to be PM) when Anwar allegedly got the numbers. This resulted in Azmin and gang and some Umno MPs to jumpe over to Bersatu to form the government with BN and GPS.

Sadly same thing may happen again if Muhyiddin receives the letter of appointment and MCA, MIC and some Umno MPs crossed over. It is debatable whether the Umno constitution will allow Zahid to sack his ‘frogs’. And if Muhyiddin goes ahead to form the government, Zahid or Umno might sue them and be embroiled in a drawn-out court case.

But which government is good for Malaysia?

We must not forget our beloved Malaysia is a multiracial, multicultural and multireligious country. Although Malays/Muslims form the majority, we have to come together to build a better Malaysia for all. Our country cannot progress if the Malays govern and ignore the others. The other races accept Malay/Muslims are the majority and they should rightfully occupy the majority in government and finance. And this is what we are having now.

The PN/GPS/GRS government will be a Malay/Muslim one with PAS as the dominant force with 49 MPs. PAS would definitely want to enforce more Islamic values now as compared to the previous government as back then, they were in the minority with 18 MPs. With 49 now, they will definitely demand more. And we cannot blame them as this is what PAS was formed to do and they are obliged to do it with their new found strength.

The other alternative is a PH/BN and hopefully GPS and GRS. This is definitely a representation of our racial and religious backgrounds. All major races and religions will be represented in this government. Even Sarawak and Sabah will not be left out.

And for this to happen, the ball is at GPS’ feet. With 22 MPs, it can make up for the expected MCA gap and also for the Umno MPs who refuse to join.

I hope GPS will take the right decision to lift our beloved country from the mess we are now in. Our future is in your hands! Otherwise Malaysia will just continue to slide down further. We were one of the Asian tigers not long ago, even ahead of China. Now Indonesia, Vietnam and many other Asian countries have overtaken us.

We can only pray GPS will take the right decision for a better Malaysia.

* Lee Hwa Beng is a three-term state assemblyman and co-author of ‘PKFZ:A Nation’s Trust Betrayed & Where is Pastor Raymond?’

** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.