Analysts say PAC role will help Umno in opposition

But Oi Ei Sun thinks they cannot be trusted, and it would be like having a fox to guard the chicken coop.

Pakatan Harapan hopes opposition leader Ahmad Zahid Hamidi of Umno will head the Public Accounts Committee.

KUALA LUMPUR: Asking an Umno politician to chair the Public Accounts Committee is like making a fox guard the chicken coop, says a political analyst, but two other analysts believe it would be good for Umno in adjusting to being the opposition.

Awang Azman Awang Pawi of Universiti Malaya said that Umno could play an active role in scrutinising the new federal government led by Pakatan Harapan.

“This can also be learning steps for them to become an effective opposition coalition,” he told FMT. He said Umno seemed to be having trouble adjusting to being on the other side after heading the federal government for six decades.

Independent political analyst Kamarul Zaman Yusoff said an Umno chairman of PAC would ensure that PH practised good governance as they are being watched. He hoped BN would not reject the PAC offer, as they did in the Selangor state assembly.

Under the Selangor state assembly’s standing orders, the opposition leader is to head the PAC.

However, Oh Ei Sun, senior adviser for international affairs at the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute believed that the PAC chairmanship should be given to a MP of DAP or Amanah who did not have “Umno roots” in them.

“Umno taking on the PAC chairmanship is like having a fox guarding a chicken pen”, he said, “they cannot be trusted to chair an important monitoring and auditing body like PAC.”

On Tuesday, the deputy speaker of the Dewan Rakyat, Nga Kor Ming, said an opposition MP would be proposed as chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. It would be up to opposition leader Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to decide if they wished to take up the post.

Law minister Liew Vui Keong has said that only one nomination had been received.

PAC is the parliamentary committee that scrutinises public accounts, invites ministers, or ministry officials for questioning, and issues a report of its findings.

Under the BN government, PAC was led by a BN MP. -FMT