MP SPEAKS Prime Najib Abdul Razak should sack both Tajuddin Abdul Rahman and Chong Sin Woon as deputy ministers as the message is long overdue that Malaysians deserve ministers and deputy ministers of some standard and quality and not every Tom, Dick and Harry should be elevated to such positions.

For some time, the calibre of ministers and deputy ministers has been on a relentless downward decline like our football world ranking, which plunged to the worst-ever 171st placing in the Fifa rankings in October 2015 when we were still ranked No. 154 at the beginning of the year in January 2015.

Malaysia was positioned in the Fifa rankings at No 79 in 1993, 96 in 1996, 107 in 2,000, 123 in 2005, 154 in January 2015 and 171 in October 2015 – embarrassing chart of a nation’s trajectory of relentless decline, also reflected in other sectors of our national endeavor.

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad (photo) had dismissed Cabinets formed after he retired in 2003 as Prime Minister for 22 years as “half-past six” while former Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin had shown utter contempt of what he described as “deadwood” Ministers.

Early this year, I had written an open letter to all ministers asking them not to be “half-past six” or “deadwood” ministers, and for heaven’s sake, “don’t be moral pygmies and political dwarfs” but to take a stand on critical issues of the nation on behalf of present and future, particularly on the great questions of right and wrong in Malaysia.

But my open letter elicited no response or change, and Najib post-13th General Election cabinet was a great failure and disappointment.

With a reshuffled cabinet two months ago because of Najib’s twin mega scandals of RM50 billion 1MDB and RM2.6 billion “donation” in Najib’s personal banking accounts, things have got worse rather than better.

This is why the country was recently entertained to the spectacle of a minister for communications and multimedia with minimal grasp of ICT making the howler when he said that 71 per cent of Malaysian Internet users preferred the slower Streamyx, even as slow as 384 kilobyte per second (kpbs), instead of the faster broadband of multi-megabyte per second.

Meanwhile there is the “soap opera” of two deputy ministers, Tajuddin and Chong, proving that they were no better than “spoiled brats”, with Tajuddin warning the Malaysian Chinese that they could be slapped if they took their grouses outside the country, and when confronted and berated for such intemperate language, sought to deny that he meant all Chinese and was referring to “DAP Chinese” which later became an outright denial.

May be Tajuddin should explain what he meant by “DAP Chinese” when UMNO and BN claim that 90 percent of the Malaysian Chinese supported the DAP!

Chong (photo) on the other hand, in typically unthinking and foolish manner, accused the national primary schools of breeding racism when fending off attacks from Umno racists and communalists that Chinese primary schools sow racism.

But Chong tried too hard in his eagerness to also attack DAP leaders – forgetting that he is the Deputy Education Minister who should be defending the Umno/BN education system and policy.

Chong is not fit to be deputy education minister and Tajuddin not fit to be deputy minister of any ministry.

In the face of the faux pax by Tajuddin and Chong, Najib must be firm and sack them as deputy ministers to send the clear message that ministers and deputy ministers in his Cabinet must be men and women of some quality, standard and substance.

His pathethic plea from Milan “to all quarters to stop making statements that may lead to strife and discord” in BN is completely inadequate and incommensurate to the urgent need to demonstrate that all his ministers and deputy ministers have minimal political sense and intellectual prowess.

LIM KIT SIANG is the DAP parliamentary leader and MP for Gelang Patah.