Interim PM? What a joke, says Mahdzir

He dismisses as political comedy the proposal for Dr Wan Azizah to be PM only until her husband is released.

ALOR SETAR: DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang’s proposal that PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail should be the interim prime minister, pending a royal pardon for Anwar Ibrahim, should Pakatan Harapan win the next general election is a political comedy, says a senior Umno minister.

Umno Supreme Council member Mahdzir Khalid said the process was not that simple for Anwar Ibrahim to be appointed Prime Minister as soon as he received a pardon from Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Muhammad V.

“It is absolutely unrealistic. Imagine Wan Azizah having to vacate her seat after Anwar gets the pardon from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to allow for a by-election, which then has to be followed by many other processes. All these cannot be done in a short time,” he told reporters after a student convocation programme at a hotel here today.

Local media reported that Kit Siang has proposed Wan Azizah to be made interim prime minister and Muhyiddin Yassin deputy prime minister, should the opposition win the general election.

This meant that Wan Azizah would be serving as Prime Minister for only a few months and had to make way for Anwar when he finally gets a pardon from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, said Mahdzir, who is also Education Minister.

He said the opposition was merely trying to make the people believe that it was capable of leading the country if given the opportunity to hold the reins.

But the varying indications by other opposition parties on their choice of candidate for Prime Minister clearly showed there was no consensus among them on the issue, he said.

“They don’t take it seriously when talking about leadership… they are not confident in their decision… every party has its own agenda,” he said. -Mkini