The search for a worthy PM

We cannot leave it to Umno because the party is bereft of leadership.

COMMENT

by Aspan Alias

The system we use in appointing the Prime Minister is out of date and brings more harm than good. And Najib Abdul Razak’s claim that the rakyat elected him to the position is fallacious.

Constitutionally, the Prime Minister should be appointed by Parliament. Whoever enjoys the support of the majority of Parliament should be the Prime Minister. The majority could be a simple majority. But Najib, like our previous prime ministers, was elected by a few thousand delegates at the Umno general assembly. The members of other parties in Parliament do not have a say.

The delegate system of Umno is itself ridiculously irrelevant, considering that the party is now burdened with irresponsible and deluded leaders, especially at the top stratum. Umno is suffering from a huge vacuum of genuine leadership. As such, anyone who is elected to lead Umno is inevitably unfit to lead the nation.

It is now generally accepted that Najib, like his predecessor, does not have the leadership qualities required of a prime minister. Neither does any member of the current Umno Supreme Council. One could blame all this on Umno’s failure to focus on leadership development in the last three decades.

But at long last there are now strong voices concurring that we need a PM for the people, instead of just for Umno. We want the people – not just Umno and BN – to propose candidates for PM. Zaid Ibrahim seems to be very vocal on this issue, and his effort to assemble the thinking members of the public to make their proposals on May 23 should be welcomed by all and sundry.

Zaid has said that he will propose none other than Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. There should be no reason for Umno to object to the proposal since the candidate is Malay as well as an Umno member. Since Umno is unable to find its own leader, let us find one for it.