By : JOE FERNANDEZ
CRITICS kicking up a fuss over the proposal by de facto PKR chief Anwar Ibrahim to appoint DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang as deputy prime minister forget that the post is not mentioned in the Federal Constitution. The appointment, an administrative convenience, would take place if and when Pakatan Rakyat seizes the reins of power in Putrajaya.
The Federal Constitution only mentions the Prime Minister and his Council of Ministers. The critics of the ‘Lim for DPM’ proposal are being misled, again, by the notorious ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ ideology which generates much of the rhetoric, polemics and debates these days in the country and continues to fuel the rising level of racial tension.
It was the first Prime Minister, the Malay-Thai Tunku Abdul Rahman, who opted for the administrative practice of appointing a deputy prime minister. His publicly stated reason was that he wanted to ensure that, after him, another Malay would be prime minister. This was in line with the unwritten social contract–misread these days as ketuanan Melayu–that the Malays would lead the politics to compensate for Chinese economic dominance.
The unwritten social contract got much media play during the Tunku administration which had no interest in forcing anyone to take up any skill, task or occupation. The federal government also stayed out of business and left it to the private sector.
Briefly, the unwritten social contract was an agreement among the big three at the time of independence in 1957 in Malaya; UMNO, MCA and MIC. The last party, named after the Congress Party of India like many other similar outfits in the Indian diaspora including the African National Congress of South Africa, was set up to fight for the independence of India and not Malaya. It had no qualms about the unwritten social contract. MCA had no choice but to go along besides being motivated more by economic concerns.
The opposition in Peninsular Malaysia was not a party to the unwritten social contract.
After Malaysia, the unwritten social contract was unilaterally extended to Sabah and Sarawak. Kuala Lumpur decided that the two states should be ruled by Muslim proxies, locals and foreigners, and the majority non-Muslim natives kept out of the political mainstream.
A source of conflict
If the critics had any concerns on Anwar’s DPM proposal, they should have instead proposed that the post be ‘abolished’. A ship cannot have two captains. In the past, the source of conflict in the ruling administration has been the existence of the DPM post.
Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Razak Hussein, an Indian-Bugis, ousted Tunku in a virtual ‘coup de-taat’ in the wake of the searing Sino-Malay riots of May 13, 1969 that accompanied opposition gains in the general election three days earlier.
Razak’s deputy, Ismail Abdul Rahman, an Indian-Malay, died of a heart attack while in office.
Deputy prime minister Hussein Onn, a Turk-Malay, who replaced his brother-in-law Razak after the latter passed away suddenly of leukemia in London, was eased out of office by his deputy, Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Mahathir, an Indian Muslim, even had Hussein’s office cleaned out while the latter was away in London for medical treatment.
Mahathir had trouble with three deputies – Musa Hitam, Ghafar Baba, Anwar Ibrahim – all of whom he ousted in various ways. Musa, a Sino-Malay, was publicly accused time and again of being impatient to replace him until the man resigned on an impulse. Ghaffar was ousted by Anwar with Mahathir’s blessing. Anwar, an Indian-Malay, was sacked by Mahathir as deputy prime minister and finance minister, expelled from Umno and incarcerated on corruption and sodomy charges.
Mahathir’s fourth Deputy Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, a Sino-Malay, went on to become prime minister. Abdullah let out Anwar shortly after he assumed office. Mahathir rallied key Umno leaders behind him and had Abdullah removed after the 2008 general election.
Razak’s son, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, has an uneasy relationship with his deputy, Muhyiddin Yassin. Fingers are being pointed in Mahathir’s direction. It’s no secret that Mahathir is impatient to see his son, Mukhriz, climb the greasy pole as soon as possible. Mukhriz, the Umno Youth deputy chief, was even appointed a deputy minister in the Najib Cabinet while Khairy Jamaluddin, the Umno Youth chief, was left in the cold at Mahathir’s insistence.
If Najib falters at the next general election, the knives will be out for him and Muhyiddin will replace him. Mahathir is evidently working on this day and night. In return, Muhyiddin will have to appoint Mukhriz as his deputy prime minister, continue to keep Khairy out of the federal Cabinet and ensure that Anwar rots in jail.
Undisguised contempt
The DPM post invites so much intrigue, persistent rumours of the top two not being on good terms, quarrels over the spoils of office if not a share of the loot, and talk of Team A and Team B.
Full Cabinet ministers, if they are aligned to the prime minister, treat his deputy with nothing but undisguised contempt. They don’t have to take any orders from him and don’t hesitate to snub him at every opportunity. This only further fuels the ambition of the DPM to oust his boss as soon as possible and take over in order to get even with his foes in the federal Cabinet.
If Pakatan insists on retaining the DPM post, if and when it assumes the mantle of power in Putrajaya, the party should take a leaf from the defunct Semangat ’46 founded by Kelantan prince and Umno warlord Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. Razaleigh had reportedly been cheated out of the Umno presidency and the premiership by Mahathir in 1987.
Razaleigh had pledged that if and when he became prime minister, he would have five deputies –Malay, Chinese, Indian, Dusun and Iban.
It would be a good idea for Pakatan to adopt Razaleigh’s pledge instead of having only one DPM or, as it’s being speculated, two DPMs, that is, Lim and Azmin Ali.
Having five DPMs would be safer than having only one or two in the post.
Suitable candidates for the five DPM posts in a Pakatan federal government would be Nurul Izzah Anwar, Lim Kit Siang, Hindraf Makkal Sakthi chair P Waytha Moorthy, Sabah strongman Jeffrey Kitingan and James Masing from Sarawak.
One further innovation would be the five DPMs deciding among themselves, by secret ballot, which one of them would be prime minister. In this way, all of them stand a chance.
The first Pakatan prime minister cannot be decided by the five DPMs but instead would have to be worked out by consensus among the top coalition leadership. If Anwar is locked away by Najib before the next general election, the choice of prime minister would be a toss between Razaleigh and PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, a Korean-Malay, in that order. Wan Azizah, being disqualified from contesting a general election for five years from the date of her resignation as Permatang Pauh MP, would need to be sworn in as a Senator if appointed as prime minister.
Still, the best option is to abolish the DPM post so that the ship would have only one captain. There would also be less politicking.
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