My humble opinion on the time for a leader from East Malaysia to hold DPM post

Recently I have mentioned my opinion to our media friends that it is now timely for a leader from East Malaysia to hold the post of deputy prime min­is­ter. I per­son­ally feel that the time is ripe for a DPM post to be al­lo­cated to a member of parliament from East Malaysia. This is be­cause we have also con­tributed so much to the devel­op­ment of Malaysia through re­sources, econ­omy, and sta­bil­ity. The good recog­ni­tion by way of a DPM post is very ap­pro­pri­ate.

On an­other mat­ter, I have mentioned that the peo­ple should wait for the of­fi­cial an­nounce­ment by the Yang di-Per­tuan Agong on the choice of the next prime min­is­ter in­stead of spec­u­lat­ing over it because His Majesty will be mak­ing the de­ci­sion on who will be the next PM after get­ting feed­back from MPs. I am sure a ca­pa­ble per­son would be given that con­fi­dence by the MPs to lead Malaysia. We just need to wait for His Majesty’s an­nounce­ment and that de­ci­sion must be re­spected.

It is my opinion on the next gov­ern­ment should be a coali­tion of par­ties from all over Malaysia as no sin­gle party has a clear ma­jor­ity in Par­lia­ment. Perikatan Na­sional (PN), Muafakat Na­sional (MN), or even Barisan Na­sional (BN) are coali­tions of the past and par­ties that form the new gov­ern­ment should not ad­dress them­selves as PN, MN, or even BN.

The lessons learnt from the lead­er­ship cri­sis at fed­eral level in­clude that the fed­eral gov­ern­ment must be fair even to the Op­po­si­tion and politi­cians should be more rea­son­able not to hi­jack the gov­ern­ment. No gov­ern­ment with a slim ma­jor­ity can move for­ward if they are be­ing ha­rassed and run down.

I have called on all par­ties, be they from the gov­ern­ment or the Op­po­si­tion, to put aside their dif­fer­ences and pool to­gether their re­sources to bat­tle the im­me­di­ate prob­lems fac­ing the na­tion, par­tic­u­larly the Covid19 pan­demic and eco­nomic slow­down. I threw caution to the wind that there must be no attempt to hi­jack or change the gov­ern­ment half­way through its term un­less the gov­ern­ment has to­tally failed.

The gov­ern­ment of the day should be fair to the op­po­si­tion MPs and as­sem­bly­men too. They (Op­po­si­tion elected rep­re­sen­ta­tives) must be ac­corded funds to ser­vice their con­stituen­cies. We have to move for­ward.