PM selection process must be transparent, fair and above board – P. Gunasegaram

[superadmin]

THE selection of the prime ministerial candidate is an important process and needs to be transparent, fair and above board to clearly show which MP voted for which candidate.

This is because the king will rely almost entirely on the breakdown of support from aggregating this information to pick who will be prime minister.

There are several problems with the method proposed in the letter by the Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Azhar Azizan Harun to MPs asking them to choose the one MP they support for the post of prime minister.

One, it gives hardly any time for the MPs to form alignments that will need to be discussed within the party and between parties to choose a candidate. This is especially important now as no coalition has a majority.

Support for caretaker prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is said to be 100 MPs, while Harapan plus allies are said to have 105. It’s not clear whether Muhyiddin will even offer himself as a candidate again. He should not because as prime minister, he had already lost his majority. Thus, time is needed for his party to sort things out.

Similarly, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has solid Pakatan Harapan support, but he still needs other parties to give him a majority. More time is needed to form the alliances that this will make possible.

After waiting so long to get Muhyiddin’s resignation, the decision for a new prime ministerial candidate is rather hasty, given the complexities right now. It is appropriate that more time is given, perhaps a week.


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