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Dr M: I Appoint Who I Like Into My Government

The Prime Minister warns UMNO MPs not be be "demoralised" if he appoints non-MPs into his government. It is his prerogative to appoint whom he likes into his government. This time it was all senators. At times, he must appoint non-MPs because "we have to take into account certain considerations". What are these "certain considerations"? He does not say. It creates a rumble. Why does he appoint senators then? UMNO has so deadened itself with deadwood in its elected ranks; its president, the Prime Minister, cannot even reshuffle his cabinet without risk. The Prime Minister once would not even consider senators in his cabinet. Now, he appoints them exclusively. One reason: unelected, they cannot revolt.

He is under severe pressure. He cannot face the UMNO ground. UMNO is not what it was in 1981, when he took office. It is broken into cliques and divisions so severe that it becomes all but impossible for one man to control it. Not even the Hermit of Langgak Golf or He Who Must Be Destroyed At All Cost. But both have powerful pressure groups within. If the Prime Minister wants a breather, he should appoint MPs with substantial support, competent, who would enliven his deadbeat cabinet: men like Dato' Shahrir Samad, a sacked former minister and now vitriolic critic, and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, to name just two.

He did not. So, is there more to it than meets the eye? There is. It is part of the Prime Minister's long-term plan to ensure the UMNO president would for the forseeable future be Prime Minister. He wants the government to a presidential form in which the Prime Minister is at liberty to appoint whomsoeven he likes into the cabinet, even from the opposition ranks. And they need not be in elected office either.

A detailed report on this is ready, reportedly 200 pages. If it takes root, future governments would be more Malay, than Malaysian. This would alienate the non-Malay, Sabah and Sarawak parties, even more. And turn politics even more resolutely along racial lines. I doubt if this is well thought out. Few such reports are. It assumes PAS would go along. Would it, when it would deny it power in the long run? Would the Malay cultural, not political, ground accept it?

There is one flaw in this plan: Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. UMNO, and to a limited extent, PAS, would not want him out of prison. He threatens both. Any agreement between UMNO and PAS would fail if he remains in jail. A new form of government in stealth and outside the constitution cannot be a permanent cure. It breaks open the divisiveness and contradictions in Malaysian society so far kept beneath the surface. The Malay Unity talks upset the surface calm, more so than Suqiu and Vision schools. If it is for UMNO to lead an UMNO-PAS Malay ground, it would dissemble quicker than one dare predict. Especially when it isolates the UMNO ground as well.

Ends