Pakatan Harapan (PH), Barisan Nasional (BN) and the Sabah and Sarawak coalitions would be out of the Anwar Ibrahim Unity Government, PAS lawmakers would enter after Cabinet Reshuffle as individuals!
Commentary And Analysis . . . The party leaders in the unity government, led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, would be rendered redundant in the political equation if lawmakers are taken away from them for Cabinet Reshuffle.
The lawmakers, newly freed from the clutches of the party leaders, would gather around the Prime Minister as the one and only and true centre of political power in Putrajaya.
In 2020, Interim Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad, who resigned abruptly on 24 February that year as Prime Minister, announced that he would form a party-less Cabinet and government.
The idea was aborted when the Agong appointed Bersatu President Tan Sri Muhyiddin — Mahiaddin in birth cert — Yassin on 1 March 2020 as “backdoor Prime Minister” despite showing no proof of numbers.
Anwar Ibrahim Threatened
It’s open secret that certain parties, including in Sabah and Sarawak, keep virtually threatening Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and/or Umno President Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi especially on DAP being included in the Cabinet via the Pakatan Harapan (PH) alliance.
Cabinet Reshuffle
There’s case for new unity government via Cabinet Reshuffle.
Unity Government
More on this and Borneo rights later.
Equal Partnership
In law, in digressing a little, the onus on the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA’63) remains on the claimants viz. Sabah and Sarawak. The Federal government, except for political expediency as reason when elections beckon, will probably not initiate anything on MA’63. Sabah, Sarawak and Malaya (Singapore merged before 1965), under MA’63, are Equal Partners in Malaysia.
Singapore was granted independence on 9 August 1965 by the Malaysia Parliament. Sabah and Sarawak failed in not following Singapore out of Malaysia. The exit of the former British Borneo territories would leave Malaya as Federation under Article 160(2).
The court of law will not enforce civil claims, if any. The court can only assist claimants in enforcing civil claims.
Proxy government, run by local tyrants and control freaks in Sabah and Sarawak, may be filling the pocket by using the Federal government’s alleged non-compliance on MA’63.
Human rights advocates for one, in the former British Borneo, sit on another planet and build castles in the air on MA’63. That further facilitates the allegedly self-serving local proxies, tyrants and control freaks in Sabah and Sarawak. The people are helpless and keep voting for the same people who have been squatting on them since 16 September 1963.
The people of Sarawak, under international law, have lost sovereignty. Small group in Kuching holds absolute power. The government has not changed since 1966 when Chief Minister Stephen Kalong Ningkan was ousted under Emergency decree by the Tunku Abdul Rahman Administration in Kuala Lumpur. Ningkan returned, albeit briefly, and became case law on discretion of the Governor.
No Federal Compliance On MA’63
The Federal government will probably not comply with MA’63 as long as Sabah and Sarawak are ruled by proxy government. MA’63 was already in the Constitution after being left out for nearly 60 years. So, questions can no longer arise on whether MA’63 was valid or otherwise.
No court in the world will go against MA’63 or the 1939 High Court of Borneo ruling on the nine Sulu Heirs. The 1939 ruling was the final word on the 1878 Deed between the Sulu Sultan and two individuals in North Borneo. The Deed became the British North Borneo Standard Chartered Company document.
The Company paid the Sulu Heirs RM5, 300 every year as compensation for giving up property rights viz. the right of toll collection along the main waterway in southeast Sabah, and by disputed extension, further north in Brunei-ruled territory. Malaysia, under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, stopped the annual RM5, 300 payment in 2013 after the Lahad Datu intrusion by Sulu militants allegedly linked with the Sulu Heirs.
No Parties in Anwar Cabinet
Anwar, in unique tweak, would probably do away with the party-based system of Federal government in place since Merdeka on 31 August 1957. This may be an idea whose time has come in the wake of repeated hung Parliament in Malaysia since GE14 on Wednesday 9 May 2018.
If true, the new approach would facilitate “divide and rule” space. Anwar can bring in MP (member of Parliament) and Senators from MIC, MCA, Star in Sabah, PAS and Bersatu but only as individuals. He can even appoint this writer on pro bono basis.
Anyone noted for flogging the party line risks being excluded from the Cabinet and government.
Anwar’s new partyless government would be in line with Agong’s decree in late November, last year, on national unity.
The return of former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, under special circumstances, cannot be ruled out. Najib can be appointed Senator and Finance Minister.
Lee Kuan Yew
Anwar should take the cue from the late Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore in the years after 1965. LKY was star performer although dictatorial and/or benevolent despot as strong leader. His son too remains star performer and strong leader, despite illness, while avoiding the dictatorial premiership tag.
LKY’s fatal flaw, besides not being democrat, was the public declaration that “no Indian will be Prime Minister of Singapore”.
Star performers have great leadership values and abilities, extraordinary management skills, and great energy, intelligence and luck. Intelligence remains the ability for learning from mistakes. No risks taken, no mistakes possible. IQ tests simply test the ability in doing IQ tests.
Those who keep repeating the same mistakes may be suffering from some form of mental illness and/or insanity.
Very few governments in the world can perform although they may have strong leaders. So, they don’t focus on solutions. They harp on this and that and that and this and mislead the people, remain in the public eye, and gather the votes. They degenerate into rhetoric and polemics through the politics of divertion, distraction, disruption and obstructionism on xenophobia, prejudice and hate.
Deja Vu!
India, Russia, China
Narendra Modi in India, Xijinping in China and Vladimir Putin in Russia are star performers and strong leaders. Modi avoids the heat generated by caste ridden Hindu politics. He remains above the fray and has included Muslim, for example, in government despite the BJP not fielding any.
Modi comes from low caste of tea makers. His mother actually kept tea stall for most of her life.
It’s true that Xijinping has had only modest success with the Common Prosperity Programme. Otherwise, he’s star performer, albeit not in the same league as Deng Xiaoping.
Crown Prince Mohd bin Salman in Saudi Arabia is another star performer.
Then, we have American-born star performer Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel. True, he remains bogged down by corruption charges which he has dismissed as “political witchhunt”.
Let’s see whether Rishi Sunak in Britain can be star performer. He has reputation, as international merchant banker with Goldman Sachs, for being good with figures. David Cameron as Foreign Secretary was brilliant move. Sunak was previously Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Boris Johnson government. Billionaire Akshata Murty, the wife, remains Indian national.
We can see the worst governments in the world in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Myanmar, among others.
PAS remains another worst government. It doesn’t have the slightest clue on economy, finance, the rule of law, human rights and international law. The party’s take on Islam and syariah may be based on expired shelf life.
Anwar Not Good Enough
Anwar, so far, has been been proven as not good enough. He should stop emulating the politics in PAS, failed mentor Mahathir Mohamad and bosom pal Erdogan in Turkiye.
Anwar can perhaps take leaf from Najib who did well despite being plagued by the 1MDB phenomenon.
Anwar, given track record since 1998 when he was sacked by then dictatorial Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mahathir Mohamad (Tun), can do no better than Najib on the economy and finance.
Mahathir himself described Najib in 2009 as “the shining star in Umno”. The statement may still be in Google cache. Najib told the media after GE14 that “We all learnt from Mahathir. He was the Guru (on getting political donation and/or unjust enrichment via the public treasury).” — NMH
Longtime Borneo watcher Joe Fernandez has been writing for many years on both sides of the Southeast Asia Sea. He should not be mistaken for a namesake formerly with the Daily Express in Kota Kinabalu. JF keeps a Blog under FernzTheGreat on the nature of human relationships.
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