Minister status for opposition leader under a Harapan gov't

INTERVIEW | The parliamentary opposition leader will be accorded minister status should Pakatan Harapan win the coming general election and take over the country's administration.

In disclosing this, Bersatu's policy and strategy bureau head Rais Hussin Mohamed Ariff said that Harapan was serious in changing negative perceptions when it came to the opposition. 

"We are going to give dignity to the opposition when we take over the government.

"We even want to give ministerial status to the head of the opposition. This is not something we are just going to say as a matter of rhetoric but it's going to be in our manifesto," Rais told Malaysiakini in a recent interview. 

The opposition leader, Rais explained, will be given a proper office as well as privileges on par with those of a minister. 

"Obviously (he or she) will not be sitting in the cabinet. This ministerial status is similar in rank to some of our ambassadors who also have a ministerial status. 

"Sufficient dignity and recognition of their roles will be provided," added Rais.

The country's current parliamentary opposition leader is Harapan president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (photo).

Newly-minted Bersatu member Wan Saiful Wan Jan had earlier stressed the importance of Harapan giving the opposition sufficient resources to ensure good governance when it assumes power.

Otherwise, Harapan would be left unchecked and this would be detrimental to competitive politics, he noted.

“What people don't understand is that when we come into power, what needs to be done is to ensure the opposition can function because if they cannot, then there is going to be another 80 years of Pakatan Harapan.

“Even though I am on Harapan's side, I'm really fearful of that. We need to have competitive politics. I really want to be challenged on the policies we are advocating and in order for opponents to challenge me they need to be properly resourced.”

Wan Saiful (photo) lamented how it is currently difficult for the opposition to operate without proper funding from the government.

“From the work we've done at the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) before, we put in proposals to the government. I was in the committee for political financing reform and one of the things we proposed was that the opposition side should be properly funded as well.

“Now that I'm joining an opposition party, from day one I realised how difficult it is. Just chitchatting with people in the build-up to joining, I got really scared. 

“People are talking about raising RM400,000 to RM500,000 in two weeks! How in the world are we going to do that? It's really tricky.”

'Roll up their sleeves'  

Both the government and opposition, he noted, have a role to play in improving Malaysia. Hence, government funding for the opposition was essential.

Asked to evaluate Harapan-held Penang and Selangor and PAS-held Kelantan's efforts in empowering their opposition, Wan Saiful said it was unfair to compare poorly-resourced state governments against Putrajaya.

“In a situation where the federal government is working against them using huge resources, it is really unfair and unrealistic to expect the state governments that are much smaller to also provide resources.

“That is why expecting one side to start will not happen. It needs to start at the federal level and then it will cascade down.”

The Selangor government has offered a RM200,000 annual allocation to each state opposition assemblyperson. However, the 12 Umno assemblypersons have said this amount was unfair and have turned it down. 

They said their Pakatan and PAS counterparts received a higher amount of RM700,000 each.

The state government also gives the state opposition leader an official car with an allowance for its maintenance and a driver's salary. 

But the position was left vacant after the holder – Sungai Burong assemblyperson Mohd Shamsudin Lias – rejected the offer to head the Selangor Public Accounts Committee, a prerequisite for the position of state opposition leader.

The Penang government, on the other hand, allocated RM40,000 each to state opposition members. But it was rejected by the 10 Umno assemblypersons who said Harapan assemblypersons enjoyed a higher allocation. 

The Kelantan government does not give opposition members in the state any allocation.

At the federal level, opposition lawmakers are denied any form of constituency allocation. -Mkini