Unity govt? Why not power-sharing through Parliament

 

Bersih calls upon all parties to consider power-sharing through Parliament as the way to resolve the government formation deadlock now, instead of the proposed unity government.

A unity government, or more accurately a grand coalition government, will include all main parties, namely Pakatan Harapan, Perikatan Nasional (PN), and the Borneo parties.

While this would be inclusive, it has three inherent flaws.

Firstly, the administration would be bloated to include representatives from all parties. This will frustrate Malaysians who want to see a slimmer administration with fewer incompetent politicians drawing big salaries.

Secondly, there may be few checks and balances in Parliament when almost everyone may be a government backbencher and no one or very few in opposition.

Thirdly, given the deep cleavage, the grand coalition may not have the coherence to pursue clear goals. Instead of working together, it risks having government parties and ministers contradicting or criticising each other, as what we have seen in the 32 months post-Sheraton Move.

In lieu of a grand coalition government, Bersih proposes a multipurpose arrangement of power-sharing to meet the goals of representation, competition, and accountability.

Our proposals are as below:

• Either Harapan or PN will lead the government while the other will lead the shadow cabinet with commensurate salary, resources, and information access for its shadow ministers

• The smaller blocs and parties have three options in Parliament:

1. Junior partner in the coalition government

2. Opposition supporting the government on a Confidence and Supply Agreement (CSA) basis

3. Full opposition

• The coalition – Harapan or PN – that can assemble a majority by getting BN or the Borneo parties to be its junior partner or CSA partner will form the government.

• Regardless of whether it is a majority coalition government or a minority government backed by a CSA, such a government fulfils the need of Article 43(2)(a) of the Federal Constitution

• The entire government frontbench cannot exceed 25 percent of the Dewan Rakyat, namely 55 ministers and deputy ministers in total and about 27 ministries at the maximum.

• Every ministry will be scrutinised by only a shadow minister who will be paid half the ministerial salary and provided policy staff but no other perks.

• For each ministry, there will also be a parliamentary select committee, filled by both government and opposition backbenchers, with its own policy staff.

• The chair and deputy chair of each parliamentary select committee will be paid a fraction of the ministerial salary, but less than what is received by a shadow minister.

• Every MP, except the speaker, deputy speakers, ministers, deputy ministers, and shadow ministers will get to sit in at least one parliamentary select committee.

• In total, up to five MPs will be tasked to care for every ministry: the minister and deputy minister in the administration, the shadow minister in the opposition frontbench, and the chair and deputy chair sitting on the parliamentary committee.

• If the government has up to 27 ministries, then 135 MPs will be involved, but they would be placed to check on each other: 54 in the government, 27 in the shadow cabinet, and 54 in multi-partisan parliamentary committees.

We urge all quarters including the Conference of Rulers, political parties, academia, civil society groups, and the business and professional sectors to consider this proposal instead of a grand coalition government which may bring unintended consequences. - Mkini

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This is a statement issued by the STEERING COMMITTEE of BERSIH.

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