The appointment of unelected senators to the Cabinet will not help the healthy growth of direct representative democracy in the country, said an opposition leader today.

DAP chairman Lim Kit Siang said that the minor Cabinet reshuffle announced by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad on Wednesday implied a crisis in the legitimacy of governance for the prime minister.

"The reshuffle has a taint of political and democratic illegitimacy, rendering it to be the most unrepresentative in Malaysian history in having the most number of unelected senators in any government since Independence in 1957," said Lim in a statement.

He said that the inclusion of senators in the reshuffle confirmed the deepening crisis for the Prime Minister, Umno and the Barisan Nasional as he strengthens his Cabinet with more leaders through the 'backdoor' instead of through Parliament.

Cabinet senators

On Wednesday, Mahathir announced the appointment of three senators into the Cabinet and said that another appointee will be made a senator first before taking up his post.

Umno executive secretary and Federal Territory Umno liaison head Senator Tengku Adnan Mansor was appointed as a deputy minister at the Prime Minister's (PM) Department while Senator Zainuddin Maidin was appointed as the parliamentary secretary of the Information Ministry.

People's Progressive Party president Senator M Kayveas was made a deputy minister of Housing and Local Government.

Mahathir also said that Malaysian Islamic Advancement Department (Jakim) director-general Abdul Hamid Zainal Abidin will be appointed a senator first before he is appointed as a minister in the PM's Department.

The other prominent senate members in the Cabinet are the Education Minister Musa Mohamed, his deputy Abdul Aziz Samsuddin and Land and Cooperative Minister Kasitah Gaddam.

Another senator in the cabinet was minister in the PM's Department Abdul Hamid Othman who resigned recently.

Giant pygmy

Lim also queried if Mahathir will ask the non-elected Cabinet members to establish their political and democratical credentials through parliamentary by-elections.

"Will he drop them from government if they cannot get elected?" asked Lim.

Lim also said that the appointment of former journalist Zainuddin as a parliamentary secretary "had raised eyebrows".

He said that Zainuddin, a prominent journalist, should not have accepted a "pygmy" political appointment.

Zainuddin, with his high standing in journalism, should have been offered the post of information minister, he added.

"For a giant of Malaysian mainstream journalism to accept such a pygmy appointment reeks of utter contempt for the political establishment of all journalists, the role of the media, freedom of speech, expression and the press in this country," he said.

He said that Zainuddin should consider spurning such a minor political appointment and ask for something more respectable "for himself and the profession he is identified with."