INSTITUTIONAL reform is one aspect of the Pakatan Harapan (PH)-led unity government’s policies the public is scrutinising closely.

When talking about institutional reform, most people would think about measures such as changing laws, amending the Federal Constitution and other similar steps.

However, not all institutional reforms are in black and white. Some are more about setting good precedents to be followed.

For instance, the promise in the PH manifesto to appoint two deputy prime ministers, one from the peninsula and one from Borneo.

No laws need to be changed to facilitate this appointment. In fact, the very existence of the post of deputy prime minister is based on precedent, because there is no mention in the Federal Constitution that the post is required.

The prime minister could simply leave the post vacant, as happened during the Muhyiddin Yassin and Ismail Sabri Yaakob administrations.

When it comes to institutional reform, setting up precedents is equally important as amending laws or constitutions. After all, not everything should be black and white.

We could look back at the first PH government in 2018-2020 for some examples.

Fresh from the shadow of the 1MDB scandal – which was partly blamed on Najib Razak’s dual role as prime minister and finance minister – the PH manifesto in the 2018 general election promised that the prime minister would not take on any other ministerial functions.

A similar promise was made for PH menteri besar and chief ministers, they could hold additional portfolios, but not finance.

When Dr Mahathir Mohamad attempted to break the promise by becoming education minister, public pressure ensured that the attempt was aborted.

Due to this precedent, even when PH was overthrown in 2020, neither Muhyiddin nor Ismail took on additional ministerial posts.

On the other hand, Mohd Shafie Apdal, who became Sabah chief minister in 2018, opted to continue the practice of his predecessor, Musa Aman, and become the state’s finance minister too.

Shafie claimed that he was not bound by the PH manifesto because his party, Warisan, was not part of the PH coalition, despite campaigning for the 2018 election under the PH logo.

Consequently, when the Warisan government stepped down in 2020, new chief minister Hajiji Noor continued to double up as the Sabah’s finance minister.

Thus, Sabah missed the chance to set a good political precedent.

Of course, one weakness of institutional reform by precedent is that it can always be broken.

For instance, who could have thought that this promise of sole minsterial functions would be broken by a PH prime minister, when Anwar appointed himself finance minister?

Similarly, the first PH government had attempted to end the practice of appointing politicians as foreign ambassadors, preferring to reserve the posts for career diplomats.

Yet, this did not survive the next government.

The appointment of Nazri Aziz as the ambassador to the United States indicated that the current PH-led government is unlikely to return to this reform anytime soon.

However, Anwar did say the appointment was made a year ago during the previous administration.

Judging by the recent developments, the current PH-led government is failing to uphold its good precedents.

Moreover, it is actively setting a poor example too, with Anwar and Dewan Rakyat Speaker Johari Abdul appointing their children to high posts.

Once a good precedent has been broken, it is not easy to restore because the confidence in it has already been undermined.

In such cases, the only way out may be to change the laws to enshrine the practice in stone.

For example in 1951, the US Congress passed the 22nd amendment to its constitution after Franklin D. Roosevelt served fours terms as president.

Since then, the president has been limited to two terms in office.

Another example from the US is the Federal Anti-Nepotism Statute, passed in 1967 in response to Robert Kennedy’s appointment as attorney-general in 1961 by his brother, then president John F. Kennedy.

If PH is serious about institutional reform, perhaps it could be more careful about how its sets precedents in future.

As for the opposition, if their recently formed portfolio committees could propose changes to laws to deal with this issue, this would surely earn the coalition favourable publicity and public confidence in its reputation. – February 13, 2023.

* Rayner Sylvester Yeo is a member of Agora Society. He was born in Sabah and is currently residing in Kuala Lumpur. Having grown up in a mixed-ethnic, multi-faith family and spent his working life in public, private and non-profit sectors, he believes diversity is the spice of life.

* 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.