KUALA LUMPUR (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Opposition leader Wan Azizah Wan Ismail said on Monday (Oct 19) that she will table a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak after receiving endorsement from the new opposition coalition parties.
Dr Wan Azizah said the motion submitted by Mr Hee Loy Sian, an MP from her Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), on Saturday would be retracted.
"After the Pakatan Harapan (opposition alliance) council meeting, we agreed to submit a no-confidence order against Najib.
"It will be in the form of a private members' Bill and expected to be within this sitting," she told reporters after a council meeting in Parliament on Monday.
"We have to save our country," Dr Wan Azizah, the wife of jailed former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, said.
Mr Hee submitted the no-confidence motion citing Datuk Seri Najib's alleged failure to adequately explain a report in July that said investigators were looking into troubled state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and had found close to US$700 million (S$967 million) deposited in his personal bank account.
Mr Najib has denied taking any money for personal gain, while the South-east Asian nation's anti-corruption commission said the funds were a political donation from the Middle East.
Mr Hee's motion is unlikely to succeed as the opposition is about 25 seats short of a majority. The motion is listed as the third item from the bottom of a list of 28 motions, raising the chance that there may be not enough time to hear it.
On Monday, Dr Wan Azizah also announced the appointment of Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, who recently defected from Mr Najib's ruling Umno party to PKR, as the chief secretary of Pakatan Harapan's secretariat.
Pakatan Harapan (Coalition of Hope), comprises PKR, the Chinese-majority Democratic Action Party (DAP), and the newly formed Parti Amanah Negara.
Formed last month, it replaced the former opposition pact called Pakatan Rakyat (People's Alliance) which broke up over tensions between the Islamic Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS)and DAP.
A task force comprising three members from each opposition party will be formed to draft the coalition's common policy framework.
