Our parliamentary model won't allow the PM to act as he wants

There are three main groups that do not want Anwar Ibrahim to have a smooth transition in becoming the next Prime Minister.

The first is the business group, who surrounds the present PM, and they are afraid that the gravy train will no longer be coming to them. After so many years of non-stop supply, they are scared there might even be a total stoppage. The second is the ambitious dreamers who think, with some horse-trading, they can become the next occupants of Putrajaya.

The last group is the strategic thinkers for Maufakat Nasional, who believe that the longer Dr Mahathir Mohamad helms Pakatan Harapan the faster Harapan will rot and hence, more comfortable for them to win the next general election.

All three will fail miserably because they think they are smart enough to easily fool the voters who supported Harapan during the last election. Using their usual battery of propagandists to confuse the voters, they started by saying that the PM can reshuffle the Cabinet as he wishes.

In other words, they implied that the PM could remove the PKR elements supporting Anwar, DAP ministers and Amanah ministers, and replaced them with the traitors and the hopefuls from Maufakat Nasional.

The short answer is that the PM cannot do this. In a parliamentary Westminster model that we follow, the mandate obtained from the voters will require the Cabinet to comprise members of the Harapan coalition. The mandate of the people was conferred on the political grouping called Harapan and not directly to an individual. Our PM has no more power than the collective strength of Harapan. He cannot cannibalise Harapan without cannibalising himself.

This is unlike that of a presidential system. A president can dismiss the entire cabinet and appoints a new set of ministers because he was elected directly by the people, the nature of a presidential mandate is different from that of our PM.

Faced with this problem the propagandists then conjure a new trick. They now say that an opposition party can move a motion of confidence in Parliament to demand that the present PM continue to be in office well into the future. There is another propagandist that says Anwar Ibrahim must have the support of the Dewan Rakyat to be PM. He was not insistent of this requirement when Mahathir was made PM.

This trick again is an improper exercise of the powers of the Dewan. It's never done elsewhere. The Dewan Rakyat is a legislative body entrusted to pass laws which the country requires. The office of the PM is not within the competence of the legislature but that of the executive.

It is up to the parties in government to decide on the issue of who becomes the PM. If the selection of the PM by the government of the day is one that is not a popular choice then someone can move a vote of no confidence against the PM and his government.

If the motion succeeds, then Parliament can be dissolved, and the country faces another general election. So we need to do things properly and step by step. It is unbecoming and stupid for anyone to think Anwar Ibrahim will not have the support of the Dewan Rakyat when he assumes office. It is mischievous and self-serving to conclude that we have to find someone else now since Anwar might not have the necessary support.

I don't want to labour much about when Mahathir should step down. That's for Harapan to decide. My concern is I don't want our country to look stupid when leaders talk absolute nonsense about the rudiments of parliamentary democracy.

A political party like PAS will propose anything they fancy without worrying too much about credibility since they are a religious party. Still, I was hoping that the more literate political leaders and commentators will not be so desperate to utter political rubbish when canvassing a political point.

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ZAID IBRAHIM is a former minister. - Mkini