Spoils of war: Sharing the loot, PN-style

Numerous Perikatan Nasional MPs have been appointed as heads of GLCs, government agencies and newly-created diplomatic positions over the past two months.

Most of these positions were filled by technocrats in the past. This suggests that politics, not merit, is the main consideration for the current administration.

In order to understand the politics behind the appointments, Malaysiakini explored the composition of three key appointments.

The first is cabinet positions, second deputy ministerships and third, appointments as heads of GLCs, government agencies, boardrooms and special diplomatic positions.

Checks with past administration figures revealed that cabinet ministers, apart from the prime minister, conventionally are not given a carte blanche to appoint key figures in government agencies or boardrooms under their respective ministries.

The candidates would be vetted by the Prime Minister's Office and other relevant authorities.

First runner-up wins

Traditionally, the biggest party in a ruling coalition will appoint members of its allied parties to the three categories with some semblance of proportionality based on the number of seats won.

This tradition was upended during the Pakatan Harapan administration when Bersatu - the smallest party in the coalition - held a disproportionate number of cabinet and deputy minister positions than its allies.

To understand how proportionality in PN works, this analysis will assume that the coalition has 113 MPs based on the developments in the Dewan Rakyat on Monday.

While the fragmented Bersatu comprises just over a quarter (28.32 percent) of the members of Parliament, its president Muhyiddin Yassin is the prime minister.

Umno, on the other hand, is the biggest block, making up just over a third (34.51 percent) of government MPs.

However, when Muhyiddin carved up the cabinet pie, Bersatu received the biggest slice - the party took up 34.38 percent of cabinet positions and 39.47 percent of deputy ministerships.

Conversely, Umno was underrepresented in both these categories with its share of cabinet positions at 28.13 percent and deputy ministerships at 21.05 percent respectively.

PAS and Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) MPs - who make up 15.79 percent of PN's federal lawmakers - were underrepresented as well in these two categories.

GPS MPs held 12.50 percent of cabinet positions while PAS held 9.38 percent. In terms of deputy ministers, GPS has 10.53 percent while PAS 13.16 percent.

Equality of outcome

With three out of the four main blocs on the government bench underrepresented in cabinet and deputy ministership appointments, it would be useful to examine if Muhyiddi's administration would placate their partners through other political appointments.

According to Malaysiakini's tally so far, there were 31 key appointments to government agencies, port authorities, GLCs, governing bodies and special diplomatic positions.

These positions typically come with salaries, perks and most importantly, the power of the purse.

In this category, the biggest winner is Umno, with 32.26 percent of the key appointments, followed by PAS (22.58 percent) and GPS (19.35 percent).

Bersatu holds 16.13 percent of these positions.

However, even with these political appointments, the spread of positions for the MPs is still not equitable as Umno remains underrepresented although PAS and GPS are overrepresented.

Discounting the senators, there are 62 MPs who are either in the cabinet or hold a deputy minister's post and 27 MPs with special positions.

There is one PN MP (Faizal Azumu, Bersatu-Tambun) who is a menteri besar and another (Rashid Hasnon, Bersatu-Batu Pahat) who is the deputy speaker of the Dewan Rakyat.

That leaves PN with 23 "ordinary MPs". Of this group, more than half – 13 - are from Umno. The second-largest group of "ordinary MPs" is from Bersatu and PAS with three each.

This means that one in three Umno MPs is "ordinary" while only one in eight Bersatu MPs is in the same category.

In other words, in this context, it would be more rewarding to be a Bersatu MP as 90.6 percent of their MPs have a second paycheque while the figure is 66.67 percent for Umno.

To be equitable, all member parties should have roughly the same share of "ordinary MPs".

However, this could change in the weeks to come as the Muhyiddin-administration might find or create more positions for "ordinary MPs".

The outliers

Curiously, some PN parties received a lot more than their fair share.

In total, all MPs from the seven PN parties - PBRS, PBS, Star, PRS, SUPP, MCA and MIC - have an additional position.

All MPs from this "100 percent club" were either made a cabinet or deputy minister with the exception of PRS (one deputy minister, one political appointment) and SUPP (one political appointment).

However, the most obvious outlier of the seven parties was MCA which bagged one cabinet position, four deputy ministerships and three political appointments despite having just two MPs.

Three MCA members had to be made senators first before they could be appointed deputy ministers.

In contrast, MIC, the third component of the BN coalition alongside Umno and MCA, does not appear to have received any positions from the Muhyiddin administration apart from a cabinet position.

Out of the 31 political appointments, MCA and Bersatu were the only two parties with major appointments for non-MPs, although there are veteran MPs who could fill the vacancies.

Most of Umno's 13 "ordinary MPs" are very senior and experienced politicians. However, some of them are facing very serious criminal charges.

The most prominent of Umno's 13 is Najib Abdul Razak (Pekan) who is facing trial for allegedly laundering millions from 1MDB and its former sister company SRC International.

Some in this group are, however, tipped for important positions. Mohd Nizar Zakaria (Parit) is being speculated to lead Felcra while Azalina Othman Said (Pengerang) is rumoured to eventually be appointed deputy speaker of the Dewan Rakyat.

 - Mkini