KUALA LUMPUR – Umno is being unfairly blamed for various issues plaguing the country simply because the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob hails from the party, lamented Pengerang MP Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.
This is despite the prime minister and Umno not having sole authority on governmental decision-making processes due to the cabinet’s multi-party composition.
The outspoken lawmaker said the current makeup of the government, which comprises members of other coalitions, means proposals from Umno are at the mercy of the other component parties before they get approved.
“Suddenly, questions raised are also now answerable by other political parties because they are part of the coalition government. So you really can’t blame my party for being responsible for everything.
“When things go wrong, people say the government is led by Umno leaders. But when an implementation becomes stuck, nobody wants to point out that the ministers who are causing the problems don’t belong to Umno.
“We get blamed because the prime minister belongs to my party,” she said during a podcast session with The Vibes recently.
Apart from BN, the other major coalitions in the government today are Perikatan Nasional, which consists of 40 MPs from Bersatu and PAS, and Gabungan Parti Sarawak, which represents 19 of the parliamentary seats.
The difficulty in implementing various policies, Azalina said, is further exacerbated by the fact that many of the top Umno leaders are not currently part of the federal administration, an element that would have been key to ensure continuity.
“My late father used to tell me that the most important body is Umno’s Supreme Council, not even the cabinet. The council calls the shots, the cabinet interprets them. Now, members of the Supreme Council are not in the cabinet.
“But for Bersatu, PAS, and other parties, their top honchos are all in the cabinet. So whatever is discussed, they can bring those back to the party to garner support. Not for Umno, because of all the challenges we are facing today.
“Because of that, there will be problems at the party level with interpreting whatever was decided in the cabinet. When the heartbeat of the party doesn’t participate in or run the government, things will start to collapse.”
Prime ministers from Umno have conventionally also been party presidents.
‘Very difficult to be in Ismail Sabri’s position’
When asked to comment on Ismail Sabri’s apparent reluctance to heed the Supreme Council’s call for early election, Azalina said being in a coalition government has not made things easier for him as he has to constantly placate other parties.
“To be fair to him, he’s wearing two hats. In Umno, he’s vice-president, which is third in rank. In the government, he is number one, but our party only represents 34% of the government.
“So he has to keep negotiating. And I think it is a very difficult position to be in. Not just him, but for anyone in his shoes.”
Azalina said negotiations are particularly crucial during parliamentary sittings, when the prime minister has to make sure government bills are supported and passed in the Dewan Rakyat.
“The national budget, for example, has to be an ongoing negotiation. It’s not easy. If we have a fixed-term government of five years, people won’t be calling for elections all the time.”
Azalina said while all parties, including Umno, want to make decisions that benefit their respective political outfits, the prime minister cannot be expected to force these decisions through, including in the cabinet.
This, she added, has posed a problem for Umno, whose members expect that their demands for assistance and policy changes, among other things, are implemented.
“That’s why some believe party elections must be held first, so we can streamline the government. But even that argument is also quite premature, because we won’t be controlling the government 100%,” she said, while highlighting the necessity for a political reset.
Tune into the full episode of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – Ep 14 with Azalina on Saturday. – The Vibes, September 29, 2022
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