“Revoking the emergency ordinances without royal assent and refusing to put them up for debate and a vote in Parliament initially to approve and then annul them, is clearly contempt for the Federal Constitution, built on the foundation of the supremacy of Parliament,” he said in a statement.

Apart from damage to public confidence, Lim said a quick recovery from the economic recession now appeared remote.

He also said Malaysia would likely miss its 2021 economic targets with the “continued incompetence, political instability, constitutional crisis and the surge in the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Lim added that the country could not address the financial crisis when a “stubborn” prime minister was serving his own selfish political interests.

He noted that Muhyiddin had delivered a “defiant, unrepentant and even rebellious” statement in response to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong expressing his disappointment that the government had revoked the emergency ordinances without his consent.

He said it was clear that the Prime Minister and his Cabinet were digging in for a battle of wills against the constitutional monarch to demonstrate that the executive wing is supreme.

Lim also questioned the government’s confidence that its RM530 billion economic stimulus packages and RM322.5 billion annual budget could save one million small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country, when nothing had worked so far.