Was 1MDB never discussed during Cabinet meetings?
Salleh Said Keruak
When Anwar Ibrahim was sacked from Umno and the government in 1998 and then started to criticise the Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said something quite sensible.
The Prime Minister does not run the country singlehandedly all by himself. The country is run by the Cabinet, which collectively decides on policies and other matters. Hence whatever is done is based on collective decision and collective responsibility.
The Cabinet meets once a week on Wednesday mornings and that same afternoon the Ministers go back to their respective ministries to brief their senior civil servants about what the Cabinet has decided and what the ministries have to do.
Anwar, however, insinuated that Dr Mahathir was running a one-man show. Dr Mahathir denied this and said, quite correctly, that Anwar himself, in fact, chaired some of these Cabinet meetings.
The Cabinet, argued Dr Mahathir, works on the basis of collective responsibility. Zaid Ibrahim understood this quite well when he resigned from the Cabinet in 2008. Zaid knew that he could not remain in the Cabinet if he does not agree with some of the Cabinet decisions because as long as he is part of the Cabinet he is collectively responsible for all its decision and actions.
Currently some of the Cabinet members, the Deputy Prime Minister included, are making statements as if they are outsiders and not part of the Cabinet. Are they suggesting that these matters currently attracting controversy were never discussed in the Cabinet meetings or that they were and that they had disagreed with the decisions?
