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Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Time for BN-Pakatan advisory council?


Political leaders from both sides of the divide are agreeable to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak having civil society leaders in his new Cabinet.
PETALING JAYA: A Gerakan leader today said that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak should consider working with Pakatan Rakyat in the national reconciliation process.
Gerakan Youth chief Lim Si Pin said this could be done by setting up an advisory council.
“Najib need not appoint Pakatan leaders into Cabinet but let’s set up an advisory council to bring the nation forward.
“We can appoint Pakatan and BN leaders into the council. We are fast becoming a progressive democracy and so we need to keep up with the pace,” he said.
Lim however stressed that the idea was his personal opinion and did not reflect the views of the party.
In the 13th general election, BN trounced Pakatan by garnering 133 parliamentary seats against the latter’s 89 seats.
However, the opposition pact garnered 52% of the popular votes and managed to deny BN two thirds majority not only in Parliament but also many states except for Sabah, Sarawak and Perlis.
Lim cited the example of the United States, where the Republican and Democrat candidates would fight hard to win elections.
“But after the polls, they take national issues more seriously and work with one another for the sake of the country. They can cross partisan politics just like that,” he said.
Lim also welcomed the idea of bringing in members from the civil society into the Cabinet, saying it would be helpful to have individuals with certain expertise as ministers.
He added that too many elected parliamentarians thought that they deserved to be ministers just because they won the general election.
“These people must remember that they are legislators. If half of the parliamentarians become ministers and deputy ministers, who is going to scrutinise the bills and policies tabled in the Dewan Rakyat?” asked Lim.

‘Good experiment’

MIC vice-president SK Devamany, however, differed in his views with regard to Pakatan leaders being given Cabinet posts.
The former Cameron Highlands MP said that it would be difficult for Najib to be working with leaders who are not keen on nation building.
“We have too much differences in terms of ideology. It can only happen when statesmenship trumps partisan politics,” said Devamany.
He added that Malaysian politics had yet to mature to that extent and it would be difficult for Najib to continue with his transformation agenda as the latter would be dealing with people opposed to him on a daily basis.
But Devamany was agreeable to the idea of bringing in leaders from the civil society movements into the Cabinet.
“It will be a good experiment. We could use representatives from the corporate sector, the middle class and youngsters in the decision making process,” he said.
Meanwhile, PKR vice-president N Surendran also thought it would be a good idea if Najib appoints civil society leaders into the Cabinet to be more inclusive.
However, he added that no right thinking NGO leader would want to work with BN at this juncture.
“BN government is a corrupt administration and has little respect for human rights.
“And I don’t think any credible civil society leaders would want to sit in Najib’s Cabinet for now,” he said.

‘We need good administrators’
As to whether Pakatan leaders would be interested in joining Najib’s Cabinet if offered, Surendran dismissed the idea outright.
“We will only work with BN if they adopt our manifesto, which includes ending corruption and monopoly of certain industries.
“In addition, we also want BN and the Elections Commission (EC) to address the electoral fraud that happened recently. If not, Najib can forget about working with us,” he said.
DAP central executive committee member Zairil Khir Johari echoed Surendran’s sentiments.
He said Pakatan would not work with BN unless the latter adopts its manifesto and the coalition’s Common Policy Framework.
However, he agreed with the notion that Najib should ‘think out of the box’ in regards to appointing his team of ministers.
“They must be experts in their respective fields, regardless of whether they are politicians or otherwise.
“With Najib leading a minority government, it will not bode well for the economy. So we need good administrators to lead the nation forward,” said the Bukit Bendera MP.

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