BARISAN Nasional chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi suggested that the coalition appoint three deputy prime ministers, if it wins the general election, one each from Sabah, Sarawak, and Peninsular Malaysia.
In response, Pakatan Harapan chief Anwar Ibrahim said that the proposal of deputy prime ministers from Sabah and Sarawak “has been there since the early days of Pakatan Rakyat”.
There is no constitutional requirement to appoint a deputy prime minister.
Article 43 provides for the appointment by the king of a prime minister and then ministers, upon the advice of the prime minister.
Section 2(1) of the Ministerial Functions Act 1969 enables the king to (a) confer the minister with any functions or be to be charged with any responsibility in respect of a particular department or ministry; and (b) assign a style and title to the minister.
The conferment and assignment are published in the Gazette. The order will also provide for the rights or liabilities held, enjoyed or incurred by any minister in connection with any functions conferred or charged (section 2(2)).
Therefore, a deputy prime minister is like any minister. He or she is not a mere figurehead in the cabinet.
A deputy prime minister’s powers, functions and responsibilities are spelt out in an order made by the king and published in the Gazette.
The last deputy prime minister was Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, whose appointment was noted in the Ministers of the Federal Government Order 2019, in the exercise of the powers conferred to the king by section 2 of Ministerial Functions Act 1969.
By the order of the king, a deputy prime minister can be charged with several responsibilities. Accordingly, a deputy prime minister can double as a home minister, a second could become defence minister and a third be education minister. These are important portfolios.
The prime minister can be the finance minister as well.
This may do away with a bloated cabinet at the expense of public funds. – October 26, 2022.
* Hafiz Hassan reads The Malaysian Insight.
* 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.
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Comments
Sir, I beg to differ. The PM and FM cannot be the same person.
After 1998, Mahathir and subsequent PMs (and MBs and that "Premier") realized that the Finance Minister can play "money politics" and make their PM's post shaky and so they took over the Finance Ministry as well to secure their power.
But it lead to scandals like 1MDB ...
However, as in the PH government, giving the Finance and Economic portfolios to a politician from the minority race is ideal for the following reasons .....
1) The PM can sack the FM if the FM gets into corrupted practices.
2) Similarly, the PM gets harder to be corrupted without the collusion of the FM so it can't be kept secret.
3) Since Malaysia still practice "racist politics", a politician from the minority CANNOT take top office (unlike US and UK) so the PM post is secure.
4) etc
Wouldn't that be good? Add in a term limit for PM and there will be NO infighting within his party.
Posted 3 years ago by Malaysian First · Reply