KUALA LUMPUR:FORMER Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak today challenged Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Mohd Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz to name a country that has suspended Parliament on the grounds of COVID-19.

In his recent Facebook post, the Pekan Member of Parliament said that if it is true that the suspension of Parliament can strengthen the economy, as alleged by Tengku Zafrul, it would be a great loss to the other countries who do not follow Malaysia's steps.

He said the Finance Minister's argument in equating Malaysia's move with 80 other countries is inaccurate.

"Emergency for other countries means the power is given to the government to proceed with lockdown as they do not have acts like ours that implement a lockdown without emergency.

"Their parliament has never been suspended. Malaysia is the only country in the world to use the COVID excuse to suspend Parliament.

"It's easy, Tengku Zafrul. Name another country in the world that has suspended Parliament (not postponed the Parliament session) for seven months," challenged the former UMNO president.

Tengku Zafrul on January 19 claimed that Malaysia was among the 80 countries in the world, or almost half of the rest of the world, that declared a state of emergency in order to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, Tengku Zafrul also stated that the definition of emergency is of course different based on the unique characteristics of each country.

"As I said, public health is the key to economic recovery. I would like to clarify that any decision during this period needs to get the consent of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong or the person appointed by His Majesty," he added.

Tengku Mohd Zafrul said this in a special briefing on the RM15 billion Economic and People's Protection Package (Permai) announced by the Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Monday.

Meanwhile, the comment section sent by Najib on Astro AWANI's virtual survey found that the average netizen slammed the actions of leaders who relentlessly wanted to play politics when the country was at a critical level.

A Facebook account user, Dila Fadzrey said, Malaysia is the only country that has suspended Parliament due to the power-hungry Ministers and Members of Parliament by calling for the 15th General Election (GE-15) to be held whilst the COVID-19 cases shows a sudden increase.

"The middlemen are facing difficulties, the frontliners are strained, but there are politicians who are busy 24 hours talking about power, seats and tables. Let the world see the behavior of Malaysian politicians," he said.

Expressing frustration, the user of the social media account, Shaidan Sirazi, said it was better to suspend Parliament to give way to the minister to proceed with certain work matters.

"It is good to hang Parliament, for the minister to do the work, it does not mean he is busy vying for office and urges for the GE-15, We are bored," he said.

Another Facebook account user, Nasir Wahid, on the other hand, expressed regret over Najib's actions which seem to be more of twists and turns rather than coincidental facts.

"I used to support Najib but, over time, I think he has more 'spins' making me feel frustrated.

"If you do not want to lose voters, it is good to suggest a proposal that can reduce the COVID-19 cases. His statement is provoking the people to hate (the) government," he said.