Cabinet & Parliamentary Rebalancing (Part 3): A Weightier Parliament and a Slimmer Cabinet
Imagine that you are the owner of a restaurant. Would you ask a waiter to oversee the manager’s performance? No? But that is exactly what is happening with the management of our country!
Refsa
In our Westminster-style model of democratic government, Parliament is supposed to be the watchman making sure the federal government acts in the best interests of the rakyat. However, less than 60% of Barisan Nasional members of parliament (MPs) are free to perform that role. These MPs also tend to be junior, as their senior colleagues are subsumed into the massive Cabinet mess of 68 ministers and deputies.
It is no surprise, then, that BN ministers escape unscathed from scandals after scandals. Junior BN MPs have, by and large, shrunk back from critiquing their ministerial peers. It is the Pakatan Rakyat federal opposition and civil society that shoulder the burden of check and balance on the government. This makes it easy for ministers to shrug off criticism as ‘opposition-led’ or ‘politically-driven’, much like our under-performing restaurant manager can say ‘It’s just my competitors bellyaching’.
Read more at: http://refsa.org/focus-papers/cabinet-parliamentary-rebalancing-part-3-a-weightier-parliament-and-a-slimmer-cabinet/
