Pakatan Harapan should unveil its shadow cabinet before being ambitious about forming a government, according to Communication and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak.

“If a simple thing like a shadow cabinet, which is the common practice in the Westminster system of government, cannot be settled, how to move on to bigger things?” Salleh asked in a blog post today.

The Umno treasurer-general was responding to the question on who would be prime minister should Pakatan capture federal power in the next general election.

The veteran politician said people do not like to dabble with uncertainties, but this is what the opposition bloc is offering them.

“(PKR vice-president) Rafizi Ramli says if Pakatan wins the next general election, (jailed former opposition leader) Anwar Ibrahim is going to be the prime minister if all members of Harapan accept him and if the Yang di-Pertuan Agong pardons him and if Anwar is released from jail and if there is a by-election and if Anwar wins the by-election and so on.

“There are just too many 'ifs' involved here and none can be answered at this stage.

“That means Rafizi is asking voters to first give power to Harapan and then after that Harapan will work on the many 'ifs' and try to make Anwar prime minister, if that can happen,” he added.

Salleh also pointed out that there are numerous other questions that required answers.

These, he said, include who would be appointed deputy prime minister, or if there would be more than one deputy prime minister, as well as who would sit in the cabinet.

“Pakatan cannot even set up a shadow cabinet yet after more than eight years in existence so how are they going to set up a cabinet if they win the election?” he asked.

Salleh said the fact that the opposition has given birth to five coalitions since 1990, and now it appears like it is yet again changing its mind regarding Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), showed that the opposition was still not on stable ground.