We need a pandemic cabinet, here's how to do it

 

Malaysia is experiencing another pandemic-era political transition, the second in 18 months. Right now, it is not useful to debate the legacy of the previous prime minister. Instead, we must focus our attention on the right quality of public administration and leadership that we need. 

Removing any prime minister or cabinet does not guarantee a magic overnight solution to Malaysia’s pandemic problems. Our problems will continue if the new PM appoints an ineffective cabinet in this fight for our lives.

Therefore, we should focus on the why and how to appoint a competent, effective and professional pandemic cabinet for Malaysia. It is in a FAQ format because there is a large amount of information to process.

Why is a competent cabinet important to health professionals?

Medicine, public health and public policy all require a science and evidence-based framework. However, medicine, public health or public policy does not exist in a vacuum. In the real world, political and public administration decisions severely affect the health of Malaysians. And health is too important, too big and too complex to be left only to the Health Ministry. 

This pandemic has repeatedly shown that other ministries are as important to health (like finance, home affairs, or local government). Therefore, all health professionals have a great interest in the composition of the cabinet, as it affects their daily work as professionals and rights as citizens, voters and taxpayers.

Why are cabinet ministers so important? Aren’t senior civil servants enough to handle a government?

It’s true that senior bureaucrats (like the chief secretary to the government, secretaries-general and directors-general) lead the entire civil service and ensure that government continues to operate. However, there are three reasons why cabinet ministers are equally important. 

Firstly, only ministers have the political and legal authority to approve certain regulations and decisions, as their legitimacy comes from voters and elections. Secondly, ministers are the link between voters and civil servants and represents the civil service in Parliament. 

And thirdly, ministers hold a lot of power in the minds of civil servants and the rakyat, especially in a system with an entrenched ethos of “Saya yang menurut perintah” and in a society that is overly deferential of hierarchy.

What is a pandemic cabinet?

We need a special “pandemic cabinet” to manage Malaysia’s triple crisis: the pandemic, the economy, and extreme political instability. 

This pandemic cabinet should serve until the next general election. Part of the pandemic cabinet’s job description is to support the Election Commission to build the infrastructure necessary for safe elections during a pandemic.

We can call the pandemic cabinet anything we want, but it’s clear that we cannot have a “business as usual” cabinet of mediocre politicians. Choosing ministers based on loyalty or in exchange for political support is not only inadequate, it is downright dangerous. Therefore, we need a pandemic cabinet that is highly competent, highly qualified and highly professional. 

This pandemic cabinet must have the very best leaders, experts and implementers that Malaysia can offer. With a competent, qualified and professional pandemic cabinet, Malaysia will hopefully avoid another 12,000 deaths and 1.4 million cases.

How should the new PM appoint a pandemic cabinet?

To appoint a strong pandemic cabinet, the PM must follow three guiding principles. Firstly, the PM must use competence, expertise and qualifications as the number one criteria to select ministers. Political support or loyalty cannot be criteria to select ministers. 

Secondly, the PM must select ministers from the very best leaders, experts and implementers from among 30 million Malaysians, not just selecting from the Dewan Rakyat. We need competent and qualified professionals, not career politicians. 

Thirdly, the PM must select ministers based on an ideal combined skill-set for the entire cabinet. In other words, the PM identifies an ideal skill-set (like public health plus economic recovery plus crisis management), and assembles a cabinet to create that entire skill-set. 

The pandemic cabinet should be small, perhaps only 10-15 ministers, to allow easier coordination and decision-making.

Historically, how did the PM appoint cabinet ministers?

The PM usually appoints ministers from those who meet several criteria: is elected to the Dewan Rakyat; is loyal (or perceived to be loyal) to the PM; and is minimally competent or have some qualifications for the role. 

Usually, ministers are drawn from among the members of parliament (MPs) who belong to the winning coalition. That’s a talent pool of only 110-130 MPs. It is a very small pool of talent to draw from, and it mostly comprises politicians who have spent their entire careers in politics. 

We must select from a much larger talent pool of 30 million Malaysian citizens, and find the best leaders, experts, managers and implementers (and not select only from 110-130 career politicians).

Why should the PM appoint competent professionals as ministers?

There are four compelling reasons to appoint competent professionals. 

One, competent professionals have the necessary expertise and abilities. Two, they will focus on the job instead of politics. Three, they will know when it is time to leave and hand it back to the politicians. And four, a PM surrounded by competent professionals has a better chance of managing the pandemic, leading to public trust and/or votes in the next general election. 

But more than all that, competent professionals are needed to literally save lives, and that is good enough reason to appoint competent professionals.

Don’t ministers need to be from the Dewan Rakyat?

Appointing professionals to the cabinet is legal, constitutional and has many precedents. Ministers can come from either the Dewan Rakyat (via elections) or Dewan Negara (via appointments by rulers). 

For example, Muhyiddin Yassin appointed three Dewan Negara senators as ministers and another five senators as deputy ministers. The ministers are Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz (Finance), Dr Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri (Religious Affairs) and Dr Radzi Jidin (Education). 

The deputy ministers are Lim Ban Hong (Miti), Dr Mah Hang Soon (Education), Guan Dee Koh Hoi (Tourism, Arts and Culture), Ti Lian Ker (National Unity) and Wan Ahmad Fayhsal (Youth and Sports). 

Appointing senators as ministers isn’t new: Dr Mahathir Mohamad appointed senators as one minister and four deputies, and Najib Abdul Razak appointed senators as four ministers and nine deputies. But the difference in August 2021 is, we must appoint senators who are competent professionals, not political supporters.

How does the pandemic cabinet fit into the overall reform needs for Malaysia?

More than ever before, Malaysia needs strong public administration to help us overcome this triple crisis. But politics always influence public administration, and Malaysia’s politics have long been captured by fundamental issues in political campaign financing, anti-meritocratic tendencies, and patronage. 

These three fundamental issues have led to a “public administration talent crunch”, where deserving, qualified and honest individuals do not get into positions of power or influence where they can have the most impact.

Covid-19 is the most urgent test for Malaysia, and we simply need the best leaders, experts and implementers in cabinet positions. A professional and competent pandemic cabinet will be unpalatable to most career politicians of course, and they will resist it. 

But the rest of us should support it. A pandemic cabinet will save lives today, and provide necessary competition for career politicians to improve their own offerings, quality and output tomorrow.

All politicians always say that they will serve Malaysia in any role. Now, perhaps the right role is in the backseat, to allow competent professionals to take over. Malaysians must demand a pandemic cabinet staffed with the most competent, talented and effective professionals we can find. - Mkini

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KHOR SWEE KHENG specialises in health policies and global health. He tweets @DrKhorSK. 

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.