MANY have forgotten an interesting piece of trivia that Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob is and, in all likelihood, will remain the deputy prime minister (DPM) with the shortest time in office.

His official stint as DPM under the Muhyiddin Yassin administration only lasted 40 days (July 7-August 16, 2021) before he was appointed prime minister.

Make no mistake, rather than enhancing the capability of the PN government in handling the pandemic which the administration claims, it was a gambit by Muhyiddin to salvage his faltering premiership, where there were already Umno plans to retract its support for him.

That strategy backfired and only served to anger Umno more towards the point of no return.

Within a week of Muhyiddin appointing Ismail as his deputy, the prime minister was already extending another olive branch to the PH opposition to save his premiership.

Muhyiddin was forced to resign on August 16, 2021, after being rejected by the Umno leadership, PH and ultimately the public in the form of the #lawan protest.

That is the short story of how Ismail was only DPM for exactly 40 days. This might be a viable explanation how being a second in command for the cabinet might not even be enough to rescue Bersatu from its recent troubles.

First, Bersatu’s recent public grievances about wanting a DPM should be viewed alongside how the party is struggling internally.

Zuraida Kamaruddin’s departure to form a multiracial party Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) may not damage Bersatu so long as the new party stayed loyal to Muhyiddin and PN.

However, in what was viewed as a shocking move, PBM applied to join BN instead. This development must also be viewed alongside how Zuraida has always been a vocal opponent of BN, even though she betrayed PKR in the Sheraton Move.

Even the seemingly apolitical Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz – who was handpicked by Muhyiddin Yassin in 2020 as a technocrat to hold the keys to the national coffers – has been attending Umno events and was recently appointed as the treasurer for BN Selangor.

So much for the solution of trying to “get rid” of politics by apolitical appointments. It is a lesson I hope Muhyiddin will not repeat.

The departure of a minister who was crucial in forming the PN government and the supposed act of betrayal by a handpicked finance minister certainly suggests all is not well within Bersatu.

This is perhaps why the party’s demand for a DPM is getting louder. Bersatu is desperate for something on which to cling, or a political guarantee that it would not be ambushed by any of Umno’s political manoeuvres.

However, Ismail has consistently ignored the call for a Bersatu DPM, with the appointment of any ministers his sole prerogative.

What separates a prime minister from the cabinet is the power of patronage and leading policies in cabinet meetings.

The DPM – a cabinet position not required by the constitution – does not possess such power and is at most on par with other full ministers.

The only significance that the DPM could provide is chairing cabinet meetings in the absence of the prime minister. 

The DPM held very little significance with other Westminster systems. Dominic Raab is the current deputy prime minister of the UK but was not immediately touted as the successor when Boris Johnson resigned.

Traditionally, the DPM is only meaningful in predicting who is the successor in Malaysia when BN and by extension Umno has an overall parliamentary majority.

However, it is also by no means the DPM’s destiny, given the experience of Musa Hitam and Anwar Ibrahim, who both had a fall out with the prime minister.

In the event that Mohamed Azmin Ali is made DPM and the extremely low probability that the prime minister is unable to fulfil his duty for whatever reason, the succession by convention would not sit well within Umno.

It is most likely that Azmin would lose the confidence of both the cabinet and parliament, even before entering the Prime Minister’s office.

To conclude, one may also ask if the DPM is powerful enough to cause a threat to the prime minister, and would Dr Mahathir still want Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to become his deputy in the PH coalition?

Therefore, it is very unlikely a DPM could help reverse Bersatu’s fortunes or even stop its ministers from deserting the party. – August 14, 2022.

* Kenneth Cheng has always been interested in the interplay between human rights and government but more importantly he is a father of two cats, Tangyuan and Toufu. When he is not attending to his feline matters, he is most likely reading books about politics and human rights or playing video games. He is a firm believer in the dictum “power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will”.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.