The challenge of leadership

When a person assumes the post of PM, he must always represent the interests of all the parties of the coalition he leads, and do so equitably.

COMMENT

By K J John

No true democrat can accept the way the Malaysian Prime Minister is appointed. At the very least, he should be chosen by the component parties that make up the coalition that wins a general election.

Until now, only the Umno President has been PM because, as leader of the dominant party in Barisan Nasional, he is also the leader of the coalition. So far in BN history, the other component parties have yet to object to the appointment of the wrong person. To put it another way, none of the other BN parties has questioned the integrity of the PM candidate.

This system should be abhorrent to those who subscribe to a democratic model in which leadership has to be decided by the majority of followers.

If Pakatan Harapan were to win the next election, the current leader of the coalition might not be a suitable prime minister because she probably would not have the majority support of Pakatan followers. She would be reminiscent of Corazon Aquino of the Philippines, a proxy leader and never a true one. The only way forward is to have a vote in the Pakatan Council or some enlarged body. Better still, there should be an election by popular vote, with the candidates vetted and audited beforehand by an integrity committee.

Personal integrity and systemic integrity are different ideas and ideals. One deals with the personal character and integrity of a candidate and the other deals with the quality and content of leadership, which would cover the reform programme he proposes and his abilities in dealing with people and guiding them. Good leaders can motivate followers to take new directions without causing major conflicts within his organisation.

When a person assumes the post of Prime Minister, he must always represent the interests of all the parties of the coalition he leads, and do so equitably.

There is always a challenge in trying to represent multiple interests while seeking to moderate between competing interests. It is a challenge that can be met only by a person of character, one who has personal integrity and credibility and whose behaviour and actions harmonise with his orations.

Our first PM, Tunku Abdul Rahman had a remarkable ability to separate his personal and private space from his public persona and position on issues of concern to the public. He lived a personal life without public scrutiny and maintained his lovable public persona in spite of some private preferences that were questionable from the viewpoint of his Islamic faith.

There was genuine love and admiration for him from people of all walks of life. His message of unity was not only truly believed and preached; he lived it out in many different ways. In terms of both content and context, he may have been the best PM we’ve ever had. He was, indeed, a unifying personality.

Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, our second PM, was instrumental in planning and choreographing the transfer of power from Tunku Abdul Rahman, according to some accounts. After the race riots of May 1969, his faction in Umno overthrew the Tunku and imposed a state of emergency. The new regime, called the National Operations Council, ruled by decree until 1970. In September 1970, Razak succeeded the Tunku as the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Our third PM, Tun Hussein Onn, did not serve for very long despite his pedigree. He was a son of the almost legendary Onn Jaafar, a political figure who played a leading role in the Merdeka movement and the establishment of the Federation of Malaya.

It was Razak who persuaded Hussein to participate in active politics. He won a parliament seat in the 1969 general election and was appointed Education Minister. In August 1973, he succeeded the late Tun Ismail Abdul Rahman as the Deputy Prime Minister. He became PM when Razak died in January 1976.

Hussein will be remembered in Malaysian politics as a man dedicated to truth, as exemplified in his insistence that the corruption case against the immensely popular Harun Idris be pursued to its better end. Harun was eventually sent to jail.

The fourth PM, Tun Mahathir Mohamad, was something of an outsider and not really an establishment person. Unlike his predecessors, he had no pedigree in Umno politics. Neither had he played an integral part in public services. But he was a visionary who wanted to see Malaysia stand tall in the community of nations. He may be considered as the Father of Modern Malaysia.

The fifth PM, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, was a civil servant before becoming active in politics. He served as Director of Youth at the Ministry of Youth and Sports before resigning in 1978 to become the member of Parliament for Kepala Batas.

Abdullah will be remembered as the PM who gave the Malaysian media a measure of freedom it had not known before.

The sixth PM made promises about building a united Malaysia through his so-called 1Malaysia programme, but today the country is more divided than ever before. Furthermore, we are witnessing a clampdown on the media and all kinds of abuses of personal freedoms that are guaranteed by the Federal Constitution. It’s interesting that the recent assaults on freedom have come at a time when the PM is under intense scrutiny over alleged abuses of power involving huge amounts of money. Is this coincidental? Whither the truth?

K J John was Director of Industrial Policy with MITI until 1996 before he moved to the NITC at Mimos Berhad to develop the National IT Agenda.