Sunday, May 12, 2013

A Government without MCA Representation?

If MCA's decision not to allow its members to participate in the government at Federal or State level is strictly enforced, then there will be no MCA Chinese representative at all in the Barisan government. There'll only be opposition members from DAP or from other parties in Pakatan. What will the philosophy of multiracialism and concept of power sharing in the government then become? All Chinese interest can only then be represented by the opposition as set against the interests of other racial groups. Racialism will be the order of the day.


God forbids. Even if all Malaysian politicians are wise and sane enough to avoid open racial conflicts and confrontation, there cannot be any goodwill and love between the multiracial citizens anymore.Their interest would be totally divided along racial and political lines. Disaster would befall the country.

The Prime Minister is thus faced with a very difficult situation now in forming his Cabinet line-up. Who can he get to represent the Chines in the Government since MCA will refuse any position offered? Only four major alternatives are open to him,
(1) form a Cabinet with only Malays and Indians representatives
(2) get some representatives in Cabinet from prominent Chinese community leaders outside MCA, through non-political association,
(3) appoint some Chinese leaders from among his own trusted friends as Ministers, and
(4) include some elected Chinese leaders from the Opposition party to join his Cabinet ( which requires a coalition of sort).
Of course the PM can resort to all those alternatives in various degrees.

But will that overcome the real issue faced - that the Chinese community had rejected MCA to represent their interest and that Barisan as it is does not command their confidence anymore. No matter what Datuk Seri Najib will do to assure them that BN and he himself ( as a Prime Minister for all, irrespective of races) will take care of their interest, the trust once enjoyed is gone. And the door to regaining that trust through MCA seems closed by MC's own decision itself, which may have been done to rebuke the Chinese for the lack of support.

We have thus a very complicated problem for Datuk Seri Najib to solve.He might need to reestablish the Department of National Unity again, and maybe tun it into a Ministry to deal with the reemergence of the racial issue.. The current situation may well be the result of a neglect on the significance of maintaining harmonious community relationship and allowing material progress to exceed multiracial cooperation by the government. The goals of national unity as spelled out in the NEC, especially that of spreading wealth and not allowing it to remain in the hands of a few billionaires, had not been pursued well. And the need to assist the underprivileged and the poor, irrespective of race, had been terribly misunderstood.

The new 5-year term of office as won by Barisan should, therefore, be used as a period of rescrutiny of the national objectives and bringing the Malaysians of all races together again. This should remain as the most important overall goal, over and above creating a modern high income nation.



4 comments:

norzah said...

'Cabinet line-up by Wednesday,' says NST May 13." ..he (the PM) would not want a cabinet without Chinese representation." So where is he going to get the Chinese representatives...from other BN coalition members in Sabah and Sarawak?

norzah said...

The Cabinet Ministers List announced by the PM on Me14,2013:

Prime Minister: Datuk Seri Najib Razak
Deputy Prime Minister: Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin

Prime Minister's Department
Ministers:
Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom
Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar (to be appointed a senator)
Datuk Seri Idris Jala (to be appointed a senator)
Tan Sri Joseph Kurup
Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim
Nancy Shukry
Datuk Joseph Entulu Belaun
Datuk Paul Low Seng Kuan (to be appointed a senator)

Deputy Ministers:
Datuk Razali Ibrahim
P. Waythamoorthy (to be appointed a senator)

Ministry of Finance
Minister I: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak
Minister II: Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah
Deputy Minister: Datuk Ahmad Maslan

Ministry of Education
Minister I: Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin
Minister II Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh
Deputy Minister I: Datuk Mary Yap
Deputy Minister II: P. Kamalanathan

Ministry of Home Affairs
Minister: Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi
Deputy Minister: Datuk Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar

Ministry of Communication and Multimedia
Minister: Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek
Deputy Minister: Datuk Jailani Johari

Ministry of International Trade and Industry
Minister: Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed
Deputy Minister: Hamim Samuri

Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
Minister: Datuk Seri G. Palanivel
Deputy Minister: Datuk James Dawos Mamit


Ministry of Transport
Minister: Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein (acting)
Deputy Minister: Datuk Aziz Kaprawi


Ministry of Tourism and Culture
Minister: Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz
Deputy Minister: Datuk Joseph Salang


Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry
Minister: Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob
Deputy Minister: Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman

Ministry of Defence
Minister: Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein
Deputy Minister: Datuk Abdul Rahim Bakri

Ministry of Works
Minister: Datuk Fadillah Yusof
Deputy Minister: Datuk Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin


Ministry of Health
Minister: Datuk Seri Dr S. Subramaniam
Deputy Minister: Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya


Ministry of Youth and Sports
Minister: Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar
Deputy Minister: Datuk M. Saravanan


Ministry of Human Resources
Minister: Datuk Richard Riot
Deputy Minister: Datuk Ismail Abdul Muttalib


Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism
Minister: Datuk Hasan Malek
Deputy Minister: Datuk Ahmad Bashah Md Hanipah (to be appointed a senator)


Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development
Minister: Datuk Rohani Abdul Karim
Deputy Minister: Datuk Azizah Mohd Dun

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Minister: Datuk Seri Anifah Aman
Deputy Minister: Datuk Hamzah Zainuddin

Ministry of Urban Well-being, Housing and Local Government
Minister: Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahalan
Deputy Minister: Datuk Halimah Sadique

Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities
Minister: Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas
Deputy Minister: Datuk Noriah Kasnon

Ministry of Rural and Regional Development
Minister: Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal
Deputy Minister: Datuk Alexander Nanta Linggi

Ministry of Federal Territories
Minister: Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor
Deputy Minister: Datuk Dr J. Loga Bala Mohan

Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and Water
Minister: Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili
Deputy Minister: Datuk Seri Mahdzir Khalid


Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation
Minister: Datuk Dr Ewon Ebin
Deputy Minister: Datuk Dr Abu Bakar Mohamad Diah

irwcsoh said...

If we are talking about 1Malaysia, representation based on racial ties should be the first to go. We should have just consultative councils and the representative must do his best and be unbias to convey the needs of the community to the Cabinet.

norzah said...

Irwasoh, we've had a General Election as a democratic country and the people had made their choice. The govt could still have a consultative council on econ. development, education etc. if it wants to within the framework of parliamentary democracy. Thanks for the thought.