Friday, April 10, 2009

Forming cabinet and shadow cabinet - a wretched Malaysian problem

Ong Kian Ming wrote A calculated risk to exclude Khairy in Malaysiakini, obviously referring to the new Malaysian cabinet.

Ong reckons Khairy would have been useful to Najib in winning and attracting younger Malaysians to the fold of the BN, and no doubt Pakatan Rakyat must be pleased to see Khairy marginalised and insulted to an extent the UMNO Youth boss would lack the incentive to support Najib’s premiership.

Najib’s detractors, apart from accusing him of being Altantuyaa’s murderer minus any evidence save that already cut & pasted in their minds, have been sneering at him for being Dr Mahathir’s puppet ….. coz for some startling reasons known only to himself (we can only speculate, and Malaysians are damn good at this sport), he has ignored the UMNO Youth chief whilst appointing the UMNO Youth No 2 into the new cabinet.

Then, as if to support the detractors’ criticisms, Najib also selected Dr Mahathir’s son, Mukhriz who doesn’t hold any position in UMNO, to be a deputy minister.

But Najib has always been a person who has avoided confrontation with another UMNO leader, to an extent he had been labelled Mr Zig Zag.


We can speculate his strange decisions must be to mollify Dr Mahathir who has been dead set against Khairy being appointed to the cabinet. Perhaps Najib reckoned that at this stage of his premiership he could do well without the former PM harassing him as he witnessed was done to AAB.

It would be interesting to know what Najib would have told Khairy? Man man lai? Wakakakakakakaka.

But what about Pakatan Rakyat’s shadow cabinet? For the past year many have been advising and beseeching Anwar Ibrahim to form one but the World’s Greatest Reformer has studiously ignored them.

Of course kaytee has his opinions as to why the Renaissance Man has neglected such a fundamental pillar of Westminster democracy. In my humble opinion, I believe this was due to (initially 3 but now) 2 possible reasons:

(1) Earlier (immediately post general election last year), I suspect he planned to take his ‘core’ group of PKR MPs back to UMNO. It was doubly wonderful when BN-UMNO was denied its usual 2/3 majority. His leverage (offering his ‘core’ PKR MPs to give BN-UMNO its 2/3) became even more powerful.

UMNO in the person of AAB ignored him, and he now realised that the likelihood is even more remote with Najib in charge.

(2) He was far too obsessed with seizing power to become the PM – see my post The torment and impatience of Anwar Ibrahim where I wrote:

Not satisfied with the Pakatan achieving a tsunamic victory (alas, there was nothing for him personally, when UMNO continued to snub him), he sought to destabilize a democratically elected government.

In the 6-months long process of snapping at AAB's heels and attempting to crush Najib's wayward balls, he has pushed himself and Pakatan into a blind alley, where he now cannot extricate himself if he doesn’t become PM by 16 September 2008.

What he should have done was to consolidate the Pakatan’s new power, formed a shadow cabinet to train his colleagues on ministerial functions, and developed the 5 Pakatan held States as models of democracy, freedom and free speech, non-corruptibility, good governance with full transparency and public accountability, and race-less equality and opportunity.

And he would have easily become PM in 2012 …

… but alas no ..

Anwar Ibrahim has always been about Anwar Ibrahim, Anwar Ibrahim and Anwar Ibrahim, and f* the shadow cabinet!

(3) Anwar has been studiously avoiding the problems faced by every UMNO PM when forming a cabinet, namely, how to bloody satisfy every component party and more importantly, the UMNO factions.


This has been the reason why the size of the Malaysian cabinet is only exceed by that for the People’s Republic of China - wakakaka I didn't count but take my casual comparison as one to make a point.

I think Najib did try to reduce the size but must have given up, though we can see his strategic considerations in allocating generously to Sabah, Sarawak and the Chinese based/dominated component parties (otherwise why bother with Senators Koh TK and Chew Mei Fun, the former whose ministerial position serves no useful purpose).

Anwar knows all these as he once was up there in the top echelon of UMNO, helping Dr Mahathir make such decisions. Mind you, these last couple of days he must have wish he was in Najib’s shoes. Oh, how he would have love to dish out his Imperial edict, as to who should be Minister of this or that. ;-) Well, let’s stop dreaming and get back to topic.

Just how is he going to deal with the DAP, PAS and his own PKR, both the ‘core’ group and those sincere but outer-fringe elements, when he forms a shadow cabinet?

For example, Pak Haji Hadi Awang will be a very difficult person to satisfy, being both a nationalist as well as an Islamic conservative and one who is convinced that PAS shall be the primus inter pares (first among equals, as UMNO is in BN) in the Pakatan.

At the lower end, we mustn’t forget people like Gobalakrishnan (PKR MP for Padang Serai) who has been such a ‘dedicated’ PKR phantom bus stopper and cheer leader for Anwar at PKR general assembly wakakakakakakaka.


The danger in not satisfying every party or individual in forming a shadow cabinet could be the possible disintegration of the coalition or the defection of some individuals.

With the door to UMNO virtually sealed off to him, Anwar has only the Pakatan Rakyat as a platform left (was a 'standby' earlier) for him to realize his obsession.

... so, man man lai lah with the shadow cabinet ;-)

9 comments:

  1. Ktemoc,
    When it's not the time, it's not the time. Whatever reasons it may be. You may say that there are lack of coordination between PAS, DAP & PKR.
    I would prefer Select commitee made of PAS, DAP & PKR on all ministries. Or a Group Parliamentary commitees as practised in Singapore made up of DAP, PAS & PKR

    looes74

    Ktemoc,
    I susgest that you should read LKY's memoir.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I apologise if I have been mistaken, but I have realised , very obviously from your comments on a previous post (repeated just one post earlier) your contempt for anyone who doesn't share your utter disgust for Anwar Ibrahim.

    Calling them gullible women, comparing them to "those who allow themselves to be shagged by low brow Chinese mediums, bomohs and rascals."

    WTF........

    Its your right to hold whatever opinion about Anwar, but you may want to know there are plenty of intelligent, sane and responsible people who don't share your opinion - and I'm not talking about "Anwaristas".

    Just this week, a majority of the voters in two constituencies - tens of thousands of them - voted for Pakatan Rakyat. I would say 99.9% of them are not Anwaristas, but quite obviously they are not Anwar-haters.

    Under the circumstances, I don't think your blog holds any further potential for intelligent debate and discussion, as far as I'm concerned anyway.

    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. kt

    you are quite a good writer for being a chinky.

    your mother was a whore and must have fucked quite a few white dudes i guess.

    keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete
  4. What a mentality to insult a person hitting him below the belt. Could your mother be the same as his?

    ReplyDelete
  5. If you anonymous have to degrade your mentality to that of a low caste fcuking nincompoop by calling / referring to another person's mother as a whore and have fucked a few white dudes must have been implanted into your brain when you saw your mother taking on threes , top back and front with black dudes all the time .
    Its a nice romp having threes at one go .

    ReplyDelete
  6. WTF is wrong with the posters above? This is kaytees blog!! He writes what he wants! Don't like it, don't read it. I've stopped reading rocky bru's blog because I don't like what he has to say. I do not attack his parentage!

    Like to say something-start your own bloody blogs.

    Anwar is full of shit-those of you who think kaytee does go too far probably have a point, but don't forget anwar's sins. I always come back to his role in the 1994 Sabah state election where he did to PBS what Najib and co just did to PR in Perak.

    Till today, no apologies. The lost billions when he was Finance Minister? Not his fault. His nationalistic work as Education Minister? Not his fault. His warm embrace of the IMF during the asian financial crisis? His cries for reformasi when kicked out of Mahathir when for years on end he was part of the system that propagated Mahathir's dictatorship?

    Till now-no apologies. Unlike kaytee, I am confident that he has changed. I am confident he is now a true believer of justice and rights for all. But damn, he needs to own up tp his own misdeeds in the past and he needs to understand that the PMship is not his god given right.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous 10:13 AM

    Disgraceful !! Having to resort to calling somebody's mother a whore !

    If you cannot accept Kaytee writings , go to Susan Loone , you'll have peace of mind there !

    But having to resort to someone's parentage , just strengthen my opinion of PKR's sympathisers and supporters of their filthy and criminal mentality .

    Any comments from those anti BeeN chaps on this , never !must be happily enjoying the comment !

    ReplyDelete
  8. Yo Killer !
    Got this from MKini..

    MIC mulls pulling out of new cabinet
    RK Anand | Apr 11, 09 1:14pm
    # exclusive 'We have been brushed aside in the new line-up and this has further eroded the support of the Indian community to the BN government,' says a party insider.MORE
    #Seeing red over Works Ministry
    Unfairly treated compared to MCA

    ReplyDelete
  9. Gerakan with 2 elected MPs has 1 minister and 1 deputy minister

    MIC with 2 elected MPs has 1 minister and 2 deputy ministers

    MIC unfairly treated?

    ReplyDelete