YOURSAY | ‘He will be dancing to the tune of parties with more MPs in Harapan.’

COMMENT | Harapan's risky gamble in picking Shafie

Heron: It’s surely long overdue in the overall interests of the Federation of Malaysia to have a deputy prime minister either from Sarawak or Sabah.

One can think of many good reasons. This does not give any kudos to former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for nominating Warisan president Shafie Abdul except he seems to have the thought a second ahead of the others in Pakatan Harapan on such a strategy.

In this instance, I would have applauded Mahathir if he suggested the PM candidacy be given to PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and DPM position to Shafie.

And as suspected, he had thrown a spanner in the works by acknowledging the need to create another DPM position, and that too, for his son.

Such a move can be misconstrued that our Malay elites, in general, are quite entrenched with a sense of entitlement and exclusivity. Especially given the widening wealth gap within the community.

Coward: Shafie taking up the PM post will be a disaster. It's less to do with him and more to do with reality on the ground.

He is not bringing enough to the coalition to be PM. Any attempt to make him PM will create an imbalance that is hard to make right. He will be remembered as a PM that is used by everyone and discarded after he is no longer useful, instead of the PM who skillfully took advantage of the situation.

Shafie does not have the charisma or natural support for the post. His cobbled together a ragtag army that has an agenda contrary to his.

As the PM, Shafie will have the burden of being the “kingmaker” and the first problem will be the allocation of cabinet positions. Whatever happens, his party and the other parties in the coalition will cry foul over the allocations.

His party will grumble that they are not getting cabinet seats, the bigger parties will be arguing they bring more to the coalition and should get more.

Then there is the problem of an overbearing deputy in the form of Anwar. Shafie will constantly worry about a challenge coming from Anwar to displace him.

If Anwar outshines him, he will feel the heat. If people gravitate towards Anwar, he will feel sidelined. The worst case for him is Anwar holding the deciding power in the cabinet and acting as the de facto PM.

His other DPM, Mukhriz Mahathir, is no threat to him. However, the lion that hides behind him is. I don't need to elaborate more on this.

If Shafie is smart, he will settle for the DPM post. That way everything will be more or less in the right balance based on the contribution each party brings to the coalition. He will at least be remembered as the kingmaker instead of the PM that had the same issue as Mahathir.

More importantly, he will have the time and opportunity to develop his own support base to carry him further.

BlueShark1458: Shafie is intended to be a candidate to marshal support to win a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

After his term, Harapan Plus can fight GE15 and who becomes PM would be decided by the new coalition and invariably, if Anwar has the support of MPs, then he would be PM.

Anwar could also be PM before GE15 if after taking over Putrajaya, he could obtain support from the majority Harapan Plus MPs to support him.

The rakyat have no say on the present choice of PM as this is now left to the elected MPs. If the rakyat are not happy, they can decide on their choice in GE15.

But for now, we need to take over Putrajaya as the immediate objective, and we are confident that Shafie will have competent cabinet members to assist him.

FairMalaysian: This doesn't look like just a risky gamble; it is nothing more than opportunistic politics and akin to delivering the lamb at the sacrificial altar.

With nine seats, what will Shafie do? To survive and consolidate his position, he has no choice but to go shopping around. For Mahathir, it won't be heaven either, and with five shaky seats, he will have to offer "gifts" to entice even his Bersatu people.

We have all been watching the theatre and drama as to how Muhyiddin has been "trading" and almost daily we hear of politicians being appointed to lead government-linked companies (GLCs).

I am fairly convinced that Muhyiddin may not have sought such a course if he had the numbers but unfortunately, he doesn't have enough, and he is on life-support from parties he had to concede to do that balancing act.

So, besides being whimsical and illogical, there is only one word one can think of if Shafie is chosen as the PM - he will be a puppet PM, and there will be some who would want that.

Ferdtan: It is not the person per se that is the big problem - it is because Shafie is a leader of a regional party and now elevated as a national leader. Can't you all see that? Logic, reality, reasons - is none of this important?

Shafie - whether he is a person with "charisma, character, personality, magnetism, an appealing presence," to quote writer Phlip Rodrigues - he is no less better, nor worse, than the previous PMs like Abdullah Badawi, or even a supposedly-able leader like Najib Abdul Razak who had one “speciality”.

It is about a leader, (no matter where he is from) who is leading a small party; in GE14, Warisan only won nine seats including Labuan. So how can that person be an effective PM for the country? He would only be a puppet to his coalition partners.

They pull the strings and the PM dances. Poor Muhyiddin has been dancing (and still is) ever since he became PM.

Thus, the proposal by Mahathir for Shafie to be PM-designate is seen to be a desperate act just to keep Anwar out of the equation, at all cost. It doesn’t matter how preposterous the idea is. Mahathir cannot get his way, so he creates more problems to "confuse and obfuscate". This is Politics 101.

OrangePanther1466: Being the president of a small party is not an issue so long as the other coalition partners are supporting Shafie based on shared values.

Muhyiddin is "dancing" because he only has a two MP majority and any disgruntled party walking away will collapse the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.

If PKR, Amanah, DAP, Warisan, GPS and Mahathir’s Bersatu block support Shafie, he will have a comfortable majority of 130 plus MPs to govern peacefully.

Anyway, why are we still talking about Mahathir’s role? He merely suggests Shafie to be PM-designate. Mahathir has no power, no party and no support other than his four MPs. How can he influence Harapan Plus?

Malayan Boey: I believe Rodrigues is writing without seeing the efforts made to transform Sabah from an unwanted and easily exploitable stepchild into one that values its own peoples.

That said, it would be sad if Shafie were to succumb to the bright lights of Putrajaya, once again, while losing focus of Sabahans' welfare.

However, there is another strong and proven capable bumiputera leader in Darell Leiking. In a whirlwind tour of duty as international trade and industry minister, he managed to attract significant foreign direct investments for Malaysia.

Of course, the Covid-19 pandemic and a PN government put paid on all those efforts, at least for now.

Darell will be a strong right-hand person to helm day-to-day governmental affairs. This will allow a gentle-mannered Amanah president Mohamad Sabu, as PM, to mend the broken hearts of Malaysians.

Hmmmmmmmm: The few videos that I have seen of Shafie, he seemed to carry himself quite well. He speaks coherently and sensibly. His only drawback, I guess, is that he doesn't bring enough MPs from his party.

To break the Harapan impasse, I suggest Anwar as PM, with Shafie as DPM and another from Sarawak as the other DPM. This way, I believe Harapan will have enough MPs to take over.

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