THE Yang di-Pertuan Agong has decreed that the new Prime Minister form a unity government with the aim to reduce politicking among political parties, said Umno supreme council member Datuk Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi.
“Don’t turn this new government into a proxy one with a hidden hand pulling the strings behind the scene. There is no need for a minister mentor as suggested,” he wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday (Aug 18).
“We don’t want a Perikatan Nasional 2.0.”
Previously Bersatu supreme council member Eddin Syazlee Shith told Malaysiakini that the possibility of creating a minister mentor post for party president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had been brought up during discussions between Barisan Nasional (BN) and Perikatan Nasional (PN).
However, Eddin said that no decision was made on this matter.
BN and Umno supreme council have endorsed Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob as their choice for prime minister.
Sources said that it was a unanimous decision that was made during a meeting held at the coalition’s headquarters at Kuala Lumpur World Trade Centre last night.
Meanwhile, political scientist Wong Chin-Huat opined that unity government is an inferior option with two problems:
- It has many parties (the line-up of ministers and deputy ministers even more bloated now); and
- With so much antagonism and distrusts across parties, rivalry between ministers may hamper government’s effectiveness, especially when it is closer to the election date.
“A superior alternative is a series of CSAs (confidence and supply agreements) between the Prime Minister’s (PM) coalition or party and various opposition to deliver a working majority way larger than 111 so that the government can survive votes on confidence, no confidences, budget and Royal Address,” the professor at Jeffrey Sachs Centre on Sustainable Development noted in his latest Facebook posting.
“This would also allow the PM the power to remove any unfitting minister without fearing that this may trigger its collapse. The CSAs should also cover basic institutional reforms to treat all parties fairly from now till GE15 (15th General Election) and after.” – Aug 18, 2021
