Who should be PM if Pakatan wins?

QUESTION TIME | This is a rather big “if” given an opposition which is in disarray, not least because it can’t even decide on a prime minister from a field which includes jailed Anwar Ibrahim, his wife Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli, Amanah president Mohamad Sabu and Bersatu’s Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Muhyiddin Yassin.

Let us first rule out, in the interim, Anwar who cannot become prime minister immediately because he is convicted and in jail, and he would not be a member of Parliament then. We will come back to him later.

Take opposition leader Wan Azizah Wan Ismail first. As the parliamentary opposition leader, she should be the natural candidate. If there is a need for an interim prime minister until Anwar is pardoned, stands at a by-election and takes over, she is the best and most trustworthy candidate there can be.

She is without doubt the best seat-warmer there can be if that is the intention of the coalition - and it is certainly the intention of PKR. Wan Azizah has declared that she is happy to do so. There is nothing wrong if the reasons are right.

"I don't mind," said Wan Azizah on an Al Jazeera interview. "Frankly, he's a better leader. He's a better administrator. He's a better guy for the job. Why not?"

Indeed, why not. That was implicit in the previous general elections, so why is there this change now? The entrance of Bersatu - Mahathir and Muhyiddin and Mahathir’s son Mukhriz, the three M’s if you will - into the coalition. Their entry has changed the entire complexion of the coalition. Time will tell whether it is for the better or for worse.

But let’s move down the line - although Rafizi is a candidate for interim prime minister, he does not want to be. He is one of loudest advocates for Anwar becoming prime minister through Wan Azizah as an interim PM. Mat Sabu is similarly likely to decline, not being the type to covet the top position from a party whose position needs building right now.

That leaves Mahathir or Muhyiddin as serious contenders to Wan Azizah. Leaving aside the personalities, let’s look at the party first - Bersatu. How many MPs has it got - one, Muhyiddin with a tainted past. And one state assemblyperson, Mukhriz. And a rather charismatic, wily old fox of an ex-prime minister who is not even an MP or a state assemblyperson but has managed to position himself as one who is indispensable to the opposition effort now.

Harapan must be crazy to choose their interim prime minister from this lot. Even if either of them undertook to become interim PM to pave the way for Anwar eventually, they cannot be trusted to do so - remember the power of incumbency is great and in the aftermath of defeat, there are many Umno members waiting to jump into the victorious ship.

To make sure Mahathir and Muhyiddin stand a chance of becoming prime minister, the Bersatu Youth chief has come up with an ingeniously devious Mahathir-like plan - let the people decide who should be the prime minister if Harapan wins. Harapan should commission an independent survey to do that, he said.

No, that’s not the way - Harapan, or specifically the partners in this coalition, should decide who they want for prime minister and how, and then the people will decide whether they want Harapan for them. That’s how the Westminster brand of parliamentary democracy operates. 

Credit must go to Anwar

Clearly, Bersatu is counting on Mahathir’s popularity and name recognition to come out top in the survey but even if he does, it would be totally undeserved. More than any other man, Mahathir was responsible for curbing the opposition and human rights in the country.

To hand over the premiership to him on a platter just a few months after he joins the opposition movement is sacrilegious to the memory of all of those who fought for a viable opposition and worked hard against all odds and obstacles to convince the people to vote for them, often at very great personal cost.

Mahathir’s track record in the past, even the recent past, when he associated himself with the likes of extremist Malay rights group Perkasa to score political points, is rather suspect and if he or Muhyiddin becomes interim prime minister they simply cannot be trusted to pass on the reins to Anwar.

I have written more extensively about Mahathir here and how Harapan can do without him here. It’s amazing that Bersatu was allowed into the coalition without a commitment that Anwar would continue to be the de facto leader of the opposition as he has been from 1998 when Mahathir sacked him from Umno.

If Anwar had not become the opposition leader, would the opposition have a chance to win the elections now? And would it have a majority of the popular vote now and have denied BN its two-thirds majority two elections running? And even rule three states now (five just after GE12 in 2008) and have a clear chance of winning more?

Just announce it, Harapan - surely the DAP does not want Mahathir or Muhyiddin as PM, not even for a moment because a moment can change the course of history, and neither does Amanah, and definitely not PKR. Only Bersatu wants Mahathir or Muhyiddin. Is Harapan going to let itself be dictated by Bersatu?

Harapan should announce in no uncertain terms that Wan Azizah will become prime minister and it will work towards getting a full, unconditional pardon for Anwar and the moment that is done, the by-elections will follow to get Anwar elected. And he will eventually become prime minister.

That will get rid of all fears - legitimate or otherwise - that questionable people may come to power during these peculiarly strange, irrational times. And get lots of public support too.

Yes, Anwar has been tainted by his Umno past, but to his great credit, he did not run away although he had the chance to later, but faced the courts and went to jail on terribly unjust sodomy charges twice, becoming Malaysia’s most famous political prisoner ever.

The chances of him having turned over a new leaf are much better than for Mahathir - or Muhyiddin or Mukhriz, both of whom have never known the insides of a prison cell. Let them stay in opposition if they want to but none of them have even come close to earning the right to be opposition leader and hence PM if Harapan wins.

Remember, it was during Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s time as PM that Anwar got a pardon for his first sodomy offence. Mahathir opposed that. It was during Mahathir’s time that Anwar was charged and convicted. And it was during Najib Razak’s time as PM, with Muhyiddin as his very supportive deputy then, that Anwar was convicted a second time for a sodomy offence on rather flimsy evidence.

How can one even think of Mahathir or Muhyiddin as prime minister, even in the interim, if Harapan won? How can Harapan imperil the nation so in the aftermath of a historic victory that the people might entrust them with?

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P GUNASEGARAM says it is divine to forgive but calamitous to forget. E-mail: t.p.guna@gmail.com.- Mkini