Who then can be prime minister?

Stephen NgPublished: Apr 15, 2015 12:12 PM | Updated: Apr 15, 2015 11:19 PM

COMMENT Judging from the responses to my article yesterday, it appears to me that Malaysians have not learnt to think out of the box.

I find it quite a contradiction that even Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who was fond of Edward de Bono’s lateral thinking, is also entrapped in this traditional mindset that the prime minister-to-be must be an Umno candidate.

COMMENT Judging from the responses to my article yesterday, it appears to me that Malaysians have not learnt to think out of the box.

Why is it not possible for someone like Idris Jala, a true-blue bumiputra from Sarawak, be appointed as prime minister for once? If ministers can be picked from the corporate and even education sectors, what is stopping them from being appointed as senators and prime minister of this country especially at a time when the country is at the verge of breaking up because of the political divide we see?

There is also no reason why Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng ( left ) cannot be the next prime minister, if tomorrow he became a Muslim. We have had a prime minister coming from an Indian Muslim background, so why not, Perdana Menteri Lim Guan Eng Abdullah for a change?

Why the traditional mindset?

In my hypothetical article, I was merely saying that the “most qualified to lead” candidates have always been determined by a small group of people from one particular party, instead of the voters or even the leaders of the Barisan Nasional component parties themselves.

After all, the so-called victory of BN was not the result of one party’s efforts but the entire coalition. Even though we can understand that MCA or MIC will not be able to put up their candidates for premiership under the current political climate, at least, they should be on the panel to select the next prime minister instead of leaving it to just the Umno supreme council members.

It is obvious because we adopt the British system of democracy, we do not vote for the prime minister in the same way countries like Indonesia vote for their presidents. The culture of this country has since been moulded by Umno which is currently the largest BN component party.

Umno tell us who the next prime minister should be. For the lack of a good candidate, even the most unlikely candidate for the post - in particular, from West Malaysia - is being picked to helm the country. BN leaders cannot blame the East Malaysians for their resentments because after 57 years of independence, the phoenix has yet to rise from the east.

The selection process of the next prime minister is not made based on merits, but by a small group of Umno elites who have their own agenda. They decide on behalf of the whole nation.

As a result, we have one kingmaker and already two episodes of prime ministers being pressured to step down. The kingmaker will always think it is his prerogative to choose whom he wishes to pick as prime minister.

There is no guarantee that even after the likely candidate Muhyiddin Yassin ( right ) moving up, the same episode would not recur. If Dr Mahathir lives past his 90 years of age, there is no guarantee that the former prime minister would not wield the same axe on Muhyiddin.

This is the dilemma that Malaysians face each time the question arises as to who in Umno is most qualified to lead the nation. Not many of the existing senior Umno politicians have the level of experience and even political savviness that allow them to lead the nation or at least be on par with his counterpart in the opposition front.

Jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim had time and again challenged Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to debate a number of issues, but all except Khairy Jamaluddin have turned down any offer to debate current issues.

This is because when Najib moved up to his current position, he did not have to do what President Barack Obama had to do - to debate his policy and allow the people to decide whether he is the best candidate to lead the United States of America.

It is a matter of time until PKR’s Rafizi Ramli will be rising to the top. A strong and convincing debater himself, Rafizi will have the upper hand when it comes to drawing the people support; unless the new prime minister is capable of debating with Rafizi or engaging him with facts and sound arguments, he may end up hiding behind the veil or the draconian laws to silence the voices of dissent.

This is the political reality in this country. We are unable to break free from the political mould that we have been cast in. This explains why even PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was turned down as menteri besar of Selangor despite her being the leader of the party that is recognised by Pakatan Rakyat leaders as the lead party, and she is both a Malay and a Muslim.

Only one politician, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang in his old age has been able to break free from the political shackles, when he wittily suggested that the next prime minister could well be someone from East Malaysia.

It is not that the elder Lim wanted so much to be the next prime minister, but he asked a question that struck me a thousand times. With that I also see Malaysians are going all around the bush over who is best qualified to become the next prime minister when the reality is the question is answered by only one man all this while.

What sayeth the federal constitution?

The federal constitution does not spell out that the prime minister must necessarily be filled by a member of only one particular political party.

Neither does it say that the prime minister must be a Malay Muslim, said eminent historian Professor Emeritus Khoo Kay Kim ( left ), who qualified his statement by adding that traditionally “the prime minister of Malaysia must be a Malay Muslim”.

Khoo said that the basis is that the majority of the country’s citizens are Malays. He further quoted the precedence set by the colonial masters: “Even the British recognised Malaysia as the ‘Malay States’ before it achieved independence.”

Khoo is only partially correct when he said that everyone must accept the reality that Malays were the natives of Tanah Melayu; but he has failed to take into consideration that Sabah and Sarawak formed Malaysia in 1963 together with the Federation of Malaya and that there are equally qualified bumiputra leaders in both states who are not within the rank and file in Umno.

According to Khoo, the highest rulers of the land before independence were the Malay kings who were Muslims. He is not wrong as far as the sultans and the official heads of states, and even the Agong, are concerned. This is understandable as the head of state has to also be the head of Islam within the state.

However, the head of the government? Does it have to be an Umno member? Can it not be another more qualified person picked by the component parties within Barisan Nasional from even as far as Kinabatangan or Samarahan?

Given that there are no one qualified enough to be selected by a panel of BN leaders, would Umno even allow Kinabatangan MP Bung Moktar Radin ( right ), for example, to be the seventh prime minister of Malaysia? If not, why not? Is Bung Moktar not Malay and a Muslim? How sure are we that another Umno man in West Malaysia would be better off than Bung?

Because of this lack of culture of sharing power, it makes it nearly impossible for Umno to share power with PAS amidst talk of a unity government. I wonder what makes PAS so sure that when they form a unity government with Umno, they will enjoy the sharing of power.

We have seen what happened in Sabah. It is a good example of how power cannot be shared, even within the framework of BN.

If a bumiputra in Sabah and Sarawak cannot even be given a chance to be the prime minister in this country, how then can we progress as a country where we work together as fellow Malaysians?

The moment a name of a man of integrity like Idris Jala is mentioned, all sorts of negativity is thrown at him. What has made us to think the way we think?

Yesterday: Let the phoenix rise from the east

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.

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