I refer to the Malaysiakini report Rais: Najib will pick those with clean records .

Rais Yatim, the present foreign minister has stated the obvious when he says that Najib’s will pick those with clean records to be in his cabinet. But the question is how clean are his Umno supreme council members for them to have been considered minister material?

It is an open secret that money politics played an important role in order secure enough nominations for Umno leaders to win a party supreme council seat and those who don’t ‘play the game’ include our impeccable foreign minister who failed to win in his vice-president’s bid.

One would suspect that unknown and unpopular leaders who won Umno supreme council seats had agents who manage to bribe the delegates to vote for their candidates but were clever enough not to get caught red-handed.

The only big fish who was caught was the chief minister of Malacca, Ali Rustam, who was barred from contesting the deputy president post’s thus giving Muhyiddin Yassin a clear passage to win the post against his other weak rival, Muhammad Muhammad Taib.

Even Umno Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin was only given a warning although his offence was similar to Ali Rustam’s. What double standard is this?

Other people caught for money politics were mere minions in the party’s and one suspects there are a lot of ‘big fish’ who indulged in money politics but escaped as no concrete proof had been obtained against them.

A new broom normally sweeps clean. Najib will have to continue looking diligently for people he wants to join his cabinet later.

His pool of talents should not be sourced from Umno supreme council members alone but should include others outside the party who have what it takes to improve the economy amidst this recession.

The old ways of doing business will not do. Cabinet members must be highly qualified, clean and trustworthy and who do not line their own pockets when power is bestowed upon them. Those who fail to live up to their responsibilities should be sacked and replaced with new ones.

If controversial figures with a tainted past are continued to be retained by Najib after his cabinet line-up announcement, the people’s support for his team will dwindle. But if they are clean and hardworking, the public might give him the space to reform the party and the government and he will earn respect if and when the economy improves for the better.

Even the stock market, which has taken a beating lately, seems to have recovered temporarily when Najib became the new premier. Whether foreign investors have returned to the stock market as a sign on confidence towards our new premier and the markets move up, remains to be seen.

Political stability is a prerequisite for our country’s to reach new heights. Less corruption and abuse of power will enable all to share the economic pie rather than select few. A good government practices transparency and integrity to improve the lives of millions of Malaysians who are still only at the fringes of mainstream society.

After nearly losing the federal government in the last polls, there is no ‘Talian Hayat’ or lifeline for the new premier to call in order to reform the government. There is an opposition alliance waiting on the wing to take over the government in the next polls if Najib fails to address the people’s problems.

Looking at the big picture, the new premier has to bite the bullet and reform for the better as failure to do so will alienate voters from giving him a fresh mandate in the next general elections. Najib had to just do it both for the country and his own political future.