Legitimacy Vs the Need to Keep the Country Going

A Kadir Jasin

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ

PREAMBLE: Views expressed herein are entirely mine. I am writing in my personal capacity as a blogger. It has nothing to do with whatever position I may hold.

Muhyiddin's National Alliance Cabinet at its first meeting Wednesday

IN the beginning I had not wanted to comment on the so-called National Alliance (Perikatan Nasional) Cabinet of Muhyiddin Mohd Yassin because I have problem justifying its democratic and parliamentary legitimacy.

It came into being via a coup against the democratically elected Pakatan Harapan (PH) Government by a ragtag band of PH deserters with the help of co-conspirators from Umno and Pas starting February 23.

The PH came to power on 9 May 2018 by the will of the people. They took risk to oppose and defeat the kleptocratic government of Barisan Nasional (BN).

When Muhyiddin announced his Cabinet, it had received bouquets from the beneficiaries, opportunists and the ignorant, and brickbats the informed and the alienated.

The ignorant would not have known, for instance, that one of the ministers was implicated in insider trading, which is an offence under commercial crime, while several others have questionable background.

The man implicated in the insider trading was never charged but the incident was well known in the corporate world. The offence involved the shares of Tradeswind Berhad, SP Setia Berhad and Proton Holdings Berhad. The offences took place in 2011 and 2012. The investigations started in 2013 but no action was taken until the PH came to power in 2018.

Other cases of misdemeanor had also been labelled against at least four or five other ministers when they were in the BN government.

It was reported on March 9 that Muhyiddin had asked the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Police to vet the Cabinet list.

How these people – some whom had previously been investigated by the MACC and the Police themselves– passed the vetting process was a mystery.

Maybe they used the wrong sieve to “tapis” the Cabinet candidates – like using the sieve for sieving sand to sieve wheat flour. Or the sieve has a big hole in it.

No DPM

Muhyiddin had decided not to appoint a Deputy Prime Minister instead replacing it with four “Menteri Kanan” or Senior Ministers.

This immediately led to the speculation that he is keeping the post for an Umno nominee that he is yet to spot or is waiting for a certain event to happen. I think your guess is as good as mine.

If the above isn’t the case, he could have easily chosen the popular Umno Deputy President, Datuk Seri Mohamad Hassan or, for that matter the Pas President, Abdul Hadi Awang.

Instead Muhyiddin appointed four people, one of whom is minnow while the other three are not exactly senior or proven.

They are Mohamed Azmin Ali (PKR defector now claiming to be Bersatu member), Ismail Sabri Yaakob (Umno/BN), Sarawakaian Fadilah Yusof (GPS/PBB) and Dr Mohd Radzi Md Jidin (Bersatu).

In the normal practice, a Senior Minister is a person who had served the Cabinet for a long time and had proven his capability like the late Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore. He was appointed Senior Minister after he stepped down as Prime Minister and later made Minister Mentor.

Muhyiddin’s Senior Ministers are junior to most of their Cabinet colleagues. Maybe they are better called key ministers or something like that to ease the insult on their more senior colleagues.

The most puzzling was the appointment of banker Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz as Finance Minister. I couldn’t figure out from which door he came in!

He was, for the last five years, the Group Chief Executive Officer of CIMB Group Holdings Berhad. He looks to me like a job-hopper having held 12 jobs in the last 24 years since 1996 – an average of two years in each.

This has led to some very interesting speculations. One says that he’s close to the Muhyiddin’s family through marriage while others say his royal pedigree makes him the natural choice of the monarchy.

Whatever the case maybe, I am being warned to keep an eye on the Securities Commission, which in an important agency under Zafrul’s watch and, also at some financial assets under the GLCs. They warned that the investment banker in him could encourage him to influence his new boss to put these assets under the gavel in favour of his former business associates.

Yet others say he was co-opted into the Cabinet and made Finance Minister because Muhyiddin wants to have a direct say in the affairs of the ministry. Mahyuddin is known to be interested in the portfolio during the PH days.

The Umno Pressure

The grapevine has it that Mohamad Hassan was left out because Umno President, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, sees him as a threat.

The former Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar had proven himself capable and likeable when he was made acting Umno President in the early days of Ahmad Zahid’s corruption trial.

Feeling threatened, Ahmad Zahid came back to helm Umno but Mohamad remains popular with Umno members and younger leaders.

Muhyiddin had to settle for Umno Vice President, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri of Pahang as one of the Senior Ministers, forsaking Kedahan Datuk Seri Mahadzir Khalid and Johorian, Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin who are also Vice President.

Kedah has not a single full Minister – a punishment the state has to suffer for the unwillingness of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to support the coup and for Mukhriz Mahathir’s siding with his father.

It would appear that even ministers and government members are not happy with the Cabinet and the way the coup against PH was being justified.

The Federal Territory Minister and Umno Secretary General, Annuar Musa, for instance wants a general election to be held to establish the legitimacy of the PN government.

But a GE could be furthest from Muhyiddin’s mind for now, when he is not even willing to allow the Dewan Rakyat to seat as scheduled on March 9, fearing that a vote on no-confidence might be proposed against him.

Sabah Umno is also unhappy that it was left out altogether and only one full minister post was given to the state. Even the Orang Asli are unhappy with its sole elected MP, Ramli Mohd Noor, declaring that the PN government has completely alienated the community.

As such I wouldn’t make any prediction about what the future holds for Malaysia in the immediate and longer terms other than to hope that Muhyiddin has enough courage to influence his Cabinet to continue with the reforms that the PH government had put in place.

If he is an honourable person – being the son of an ulama an all – he should acknowledge that his government does not have the support of the majority of the rakyat. That belongs to the PH government he ousted.

But the day-to-day affairs of the country and the welfare of the people cannot be neglected or rendered ineffectual by the lack of credibility of the government. Ways must be found to overcome this situation until such a time when Parliament is convened or GE held. Unpleasant as it may be, we have to swallow the bitter pill together.

Wallahuaklam. Thank you.