By Mohsin Abdullah

Now that Tun Mahathir Mohamad has made public the full list of MPs who he claimed supported him, it would be good for prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to do the same.

Political observers tell me that is the logical thing to do, and by having both sets of numbers in public, the current "debate" can be put to rest, if not fully at least put on the road to a closure.

"Everybody will know who got what, and if there are MPs who signed two SDs supporting both Mahathir and Muhyiddin, they will be exposed." said an observer.

To prominent lawyer Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, at the end of the day all MPs have to answer to the rakyat.

"So I want to know from each and every member of parliament whom did they support. They need to disclose to us because we are the people, and we deserve to know," Ambiga was quoted saying.

Mahathir's list has originally named 114 MPs but that number is likely to have dwindled to 112 considering MPs jumping off and switching allegiance. Muhyiddin has maintained he got 114 MPs behind him.

What ever the numbers it's a wafer-thin majority to form a government. A government formed by either side with the numbers they claimed they had, will be an unstable government.

When the Yang di-Pertuan Agong picked Muhyiddin as the nation's 8th PM, His Majesty was of the opinion the Bersatu president "would likely enjoy majority support of MPs in the Dewan Rakyat".

Parti Sosialist Malaysia feels that in the "nature of open and transparent democracy", the party hopes the Yang di-Pertuan Agong will announce the number of support obtained by Muhyiddin as well as other candidates.

This is not likely to happen. Even Mahathir was not granted an audience with the Yang di-Pertuan Agong for him to present his latest list of supporters and make his case. Moreover, according to constitutional expert Associate Professor Dr Shamrahayu A Aziz, "any statutory declaration issued after the Yang di-Pertuan Agong has issued his decision will have no effect on that decision" as quoted by New Straits Times.

But Shamrahayu also said it was up to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong if His Majesty wanted to make a different decision.

The best option is for Pakatan Harapan to take the issue to Parliament and try to test Muhyiddin i.e. put forward a no-confidence vote, which they want to do badly and soonest possible. However, veteran journalist Datuk Kadir Jasin, who is also a Bersatu supreme council member, sees a tough way ahead as Muhyiddin "can simply instruct the Parliament sitting to be postponed to another date". Chances are, you would as I see it for obvious reasons, among them to stabilize his position as well as the parties which helped put him in the PM chair.

As per constitution parliamentary sitting can be delayed for six months from the last sitting. As the last sitting was in December last year, the delay, if indeed there is one, any can see parliament convening only in June. The new parliamentary session is supposed to commence March 9.

And we are now hearing PKR will lodge a police report against Muhyiddin for allegedly "lying to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong when saying he had the majority MP support".

In short, they are challenging the validity of the numbers or information given to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong from which His Majesty had relied on to come to his decision.

The issue will drag on.

It's best for Muhyiddin to make his numbers known to the rakyat as soon as possible.

(Mohsin Abdullah is a veteran journalist and now a freelancer who writes about this, that and everything else.)