Malaysian government and opposition Pakatan Harapan ink ‘historic’ MOU

Kuala Lumpur, (VNA) - The Malaysian government signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH) to strengthen political stability amid the COVID-19 pandemic through bipartisan cooperation. 

“Today, the federal government and PH made history by inking a Memorandum of Understanding on Transformation and Political Stability,” Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said in a statement, adding that a “solid and stable” bipartisan cooperation was formed with the MOU.

The MOU was signed on September 13 at the parliament’s banquet hall. According to Ismail Sabri’s statement, the memorandum touched on a COVID-19 plan, administrative transformation, parliamentary reform, judiciary independence, Malaysia Agreement 1963 and the establishment of a steering committee which includes limiting the prime minister's time in office to 10 years (2 terms) and introducing an anti-party change bill to prevent MPs from changing from one party to another without incurring any penalty.

In addition, Ismail also proposed giving opposition leaders equal status with ministers, participating and contributing ideas at the National Recovery Committee, as well as equal representation in special committees.

Malaysia has been mired in political turmoil since the 2018 election defeat of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party after more than 60 years of governing the country. The two governments subsequently collapsed and Ismail was appointed, restoring the leadership of the government to UMNO./.