Select the best brains for government (UPDATED with Chinese Translation)

ARCHIVES 2010

By MT Webmaster On May 6, 2010

There is talk that there is going to be a massive Cabinet reshuffle soon. I welcome that. And I hope Najib will place the best men/women in the various ministries. We need to send the court jesters and jokers into retirement. This is for the good of the country.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

My good friend, Aspan Alias, wrote the piece below, which came out in his Blog today (http://aspanaliasnet.blogspot.com/). The grammar may require some polishing but the message, nevertheless, is pretty clear. You can read an almost similar piece by Dato’ Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz in his Blog here (http://sakmongkol.blogspot.com/2010/05/ketua-pemuda-umno-in-cabinet.html).

Aspan and Datuk Ariff are clearly Umno diehards. But they are Umno diehards who dare call a spade a spade and who dare criticise their own party. When I criticise the opposition I am labelled as an Umno mole or a Trojan Horse or someone who has ‘sold out’. It looks like some Umno people are more matured than many opposition supporters. These Umno people appear able to accept self-criticism better than opposition people can.

Anyway, the point I want to talk about concerns what these two argued in their Blogs.

First, by convention, the Umno Youth Leader is always offered a position in the Cabinet. Since Khairy Jamaluddin is the Umno Youth Leader and since he is a Member of Parliament there is no reason why he should not be given a Cabinet post. In fact, he should have been made a minister soon after he won the Youth Chief post.

Next, the argument that so-and-so should be made a minister because he or she is strong in Selangor, Penang, Perak, Kedah, Kelantan, or whatever, and as a minister he or she would be able to help Barisan Nasional win those states is not acceptable. A minister is a crucial post. A minister has to run his or her ministry. A stupid minister would result in stupid policies and this would be detrimental to the county.

I say Khairy should be a minister not just because he is the Umno Youth Leader and a Member of Parliament but also because he has brains. He has more brains than probably almost everyone currently in the Cabinet. If he is a brain dead Umno Youth Leader then I would say we break with convention and not appoint him as a minister just because he happens to be the Youth Leader and a Member of Parliament.

It is time Umno looks beyond Cabinet positions as a means of reward for either your party post or your loyalty to the party president. The country needs good people to lead it.

*************************************************

Khairy, Ezam in the lineup – Mukhriz, full Minister

For the past week I heard and read about the imminent Cabinet reshuffle to be soon announced by PM Najib. I heard it is a major one, some are expected names and some are not expected ones which are meant to shoulder responsibilities in place of the current leaders in the states who are not performing.

Bear in mind PM Najib has the unambiguous and explicit rights to choose and announce anyone whom he feels to be at the accurate place and position, even though some quarters may not be delighted to acknowledge it.

Of course there will be some who will feel crippled if the names announced are not to their predilection and their fondness.

There will be some or even many who would be getting the signals that he or she is no more of consequence to the party and government and they should admit that time to retire and live in repentance is the only choice they have in front of them.

It is time for Najib to tell himself, “heck, this is my Cabinet; let me choose whom I think fit. I don’t want to be indecisive anymore. I have enough of being nagged by the retiring power brokers who are trying to influence my decision. Just wait, I shall prove that I have ‘balls’ and I shall just announce it without any exertion”.

PM Najib should continue telling himself, “Hey, it is time for me to stop doing cover-up for the mistakes committed by my predecessors, as I have a lot to cover for my own self too”.

Okay, as the no. 1 leader of this Federation he has his own way of trying to get back Selangor and other states controlled by Pakatan Rakyat.

If he thinks that appointing Ezam Mohd Nor to be in the government and can lead the party to put up a strong challenge to Selangor PR government in the coming GE then Ezam has the liberty to be chosen and be in the government.

If he thinks that Khairy Jamaluddin is needed to play big role to save Negri Sembilan from the ailing UMNO/BN ruled state than Khairy should be there. After all he is the National Head of UMNO Youth, and the party delegates were the ones who put him there, not Najib.

PM Najib should be fully aware by now that most of UMNO members and leaders can switch allegiance instantaneously and would support Khairy unequivocally and all the prejudices against him in the yesteryears and months would be forgotten.

That is the main attribute of UMNO members. DS Najib should just announce, then the fluid politicians in UMNO would just follow.

One should be by now understood that leadership in UMNO is far and long gone. Let us just read Selangor in brief. Who is fit to take on the mantle of the state? Let us not mention names here but the fact remains that UMNO has zero viable leadership here.

So far there is no name that fits the slot to shoulder the responsibilities in capturing the state government. Let us be frank to the utmost. Can one tell the public who is fit?

What about Kedah? UMNO is facing the same problem. The only one shinning potential is Mukhriz. No one sees anybody else there. If Mukhriz is the pivoting leader in Kedah, there is the wrong, if Najib appoints him as a full Trade Minister?

In all morality Perak is still a PR government…say whatever one likes. Let us all find one leader here. Give one name…Nazri? The definite answer is no. He is the candidate to be retired. Zahid Hamidi?..He is given great task in Penang which the result is already predictable.

In Perak PR is still the choice of the people there but if I were to say this I would be grounded…but that is the fact. It is not that PR is strong in the sate, but UMNO does not have a viable and trusted leader.

All good leaders are outside UMNO. They have preferences for PAS and some prefer to be in PKR while the rest of the good leaders feel they should stay outside and smoke cigar.

What about MCA? Yes MCA leadership seems to be united after their last party election in the EGM, but the party is not acceptable to the Chinese any further as most of them recognize DAP as more viable and conducive for them.

Even many Malays prefer to vote for DAP if there is a fight between MCA and DAP.

As for PM Najib, there is no moral unfairness if he were to appoint Khairy and Ezam Mohd Nor in the government in the imminent Cabinet reshuffle. Appointing Mukhriz as the full pledge Minister is also not a political offense.

As there is quite a slim chance for BN to recover in the PR ruled state it is always important to defend the states which they are still in control and NS is the state which is at touch and go possibility.

So why deny Khairy? After all other leaders are no better than him…almost everyone has issues against them as well. There is no more clean names in the list of candidates.

Lastly we must appreciate that DS Najib and Khairy know each other very well. — Aspan Alias

Translated into Chinese at: http://weichet.blogspot.com/2010/05/blog-post_13.html