We have entrusted you with power with the hope you can dutifully serve the nation irrespective of race, religion or cultural background, not to satiate your personal desires with the mandate we have given you.

I once said even though the election date keeps changing, it will still be in this year.

On Wednesday, a day before prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob was to have an audience with the King, there were talks from within Umno that the dissolution of parliament would be announced immediately after the PM has met the King instead of Friday noon.

However, after the PM left the Istana on Thursday, he headed straight to the Umno headquarters to brief the rest of the party’s Top Five. Umno leaders suddenly had their lips tightly zipped, busily engaged in one meeting after another. The joyful atmosphere merely a day earlier seemed to have suddenly dissipated. Something could have gone wrong with their “parliament dissolution” aspiration.

The first question that flashed past the minds of many was: did the King reject the PM’s proposal to dissolve the parliament?

The palace issued a statement in the evening clarifying that the meeting between the PM and His Majesty was only a regular meeting for them to discuss and exchange views on government affairs and some issues.

The simple and concise statement made no mention of dissolution of parliament.

The second question that flashed past our minds was this: did Ismail seek His Majesty’s consent to dissolve the parliament?

Thursday morning, His Majesty made an unannounced visit to the national flood forecasting and warning center to listen to its briefing, and this has released a very important message, that the King places the well-being of the rakyat before anything else!

He wanted to personally listen to the center’s briefing so that he could make a proper decision instead of hastily consenting to the proposal to dissolve the parliament.

On the other hand, after finance minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz went to the Istana on Wednesday to brief the King on the 2023 Budget as well as financial outlook and economic report, he said he firmly believed it was the right move to table the Budget at parliament on Friday as planned because of the many measures that would benefit the rakyat in this Budget.

To be honest, even one day is too long in politics. In a similar manner, the plans we have can never keep up with the changes, the past 48 hours being a classical example.

As such, it will not come as a surprise to anyone if the grand design of “dissolution” seemingly nipped in the bud is suddenly resuscitated within a week or so.

In the meantime, the 12 Perikatan Nasional ministers writing to the King to oppose to a general election this year are perceived by some in Umno as backstabbing PM Ismail.

Umno youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki questioned whether the move of these ministers could be interpreted as cabinet ministers losing faith in the PM.

Asyraf wrote on Facebook on Thursday that Article 43(4) of the Federal Constitution states that if the prime minister ceases to command the confidence of the majority of the members of the House of Representatives, he must tender the resignation of the cabinet.

But to these PN ministers, writing to the King cannot be construed as they losing faith in the PM, but speaking on behalf of the rakyat against having the election during the monsoon season.

Other than Umno which wants very badly to have the election this year, other political parties and alliances, in particular PH and PN, have wanted the election to be held next year so that they can have more time to discuss and pool their resources together to fight BN.

Postponing the election will also give disenchanted voters now reluctant to vote sufficient time to pick up their enthusiasm once again, thus boosting the morale of the opposition parties.

BN may not lose the support of the people if they are able to shed the burden of the Court Cluster by then and come up with innovative and people-friendly policies to engage the voters.

The rakyat want the ruling and opposition parties to abandon their antiquated discriminatory, religion-centric, abusive and anti-constructive political struggles.

Among the things Ismail has done after taking over the helm such as signing an MoU with PH on behalf of the government, allowing the anti-hopping and anti-sexual harassment bills to be passed in parliament, plus a couple of other things he has pledged to do next, including tabling the political funding bill, restoring the parliamentary services act and limiting the PM’s tenure – all these are positive developments that have served to fortify BN’s political ammunition.

From what we gather from the extensive nationwide “What Rakyat Want” survey jointly conducted by Sin Chew Daily, The Star, Sinar Harian, Astro Awani and Malaysia Nanban on what Malaysians from different ethnic backgrounds in East and West Malaysia expect from the new government post-GE15, along with the incisive analyses by political analysts and observers, we have arrived at the conclusion that Malaysians want political stability and more focus on economic revival and the eradication of corruption for the well-being of all rakyat irrespective of race and religion.

Whether the election is to be held this year or next year, all politicians must be constantly reminded of what the rakyat want.

We have entrusted you with power with the hope you can dutifully serve the nation irrespective of race, religion or cultural background, not to satiate your personal desires with the mandate we have given you.

Malaysians today are so much more sober than many of our politicians, as we know very well who is good or evil.