Agong's call for a Merdeka Team is a Merdeka Day gift to Malaysians if only our politicians listen!

Crude, selfish individual party based politics needed to give way to a new politics where the ‘winner did not win everything, the loser did not lose everything’. He expressly stated that he and his brother Rulers wanted to see a new political administration model that promoted politics of unity not division.

Our Agung stated what has been in the hearts and minds of millions of ordinary Malaysians who are fed-up with our politicians- politicians who keep talking about the welfare of the rakyat, but who act in their own selfish interests. These politicians represent the old model of divisive politics.

While the world battles the health crisis and its devastating impacts on life and livelihoods, Malaysians have had to endure an additional political crisis due to these self-serving politicians as well as the old model of selfish individual and party politics.

Hence, all loyal and sane Malaysians would support our Agung’s call- to the soon to be announced Prime Minister- that we need a new model to govern the country, at least for the next 12 months. Among the features of this Merdeka team and new model are:

1. The new Merdeka cabinet/team must be a slim and trim one made up of capable and qualified people. The rakyat should say a clear NO WAY to any bloated cabinet as we had in the past. It was so refreshing to hear this point being made by so many concerned individuals and NGOs, including an UMNO youth leader this morning. A few other level headed politicians that I heard myself from PKR, DAP and Warisan have also said the same.

2. The new Merdeka cabinet/team should be a cross party team. Whether this means actually appointing opposition party MPs as Ministers or to get more cross party committees are details that can be discussed in detail. This idea of a unity government or Merdeka team is not new. It has been voiced for months by individuals, NGOs as well as some politicians. It was heartening to see the recent article by Emir Research that outlined features of this Unity government. No sane or loyal Malaysian would disagree with these points looking at the dangerous condition that we find ourselves in.

3. The new Merdeka cabinet/team should bring in professionals and genuine experts to lead in the execution of plans to resolve our health challenges as well as economic pressures. Again, this suggestion is not new and was even agreed to by the previous government. However, what we saw was unclear direction and changing policies that just created greater confusion.

4. The new Merdeka cabinet/team should address governance and legal reforms. These reforms would be very important as we prepare for GE15. Role of parliamentary committees, an anti-hopping law, an equal allocation of funding to all parliamentarians, some ‘upgrading courses’ and basic ‘entry requirements and KPIs’ for our MPs are just some that come to mind. Many more can be listed.

5. The new Merdeka cabinet/team will instil confidence in the rakyat and also investors. As we have seen the old model of divisive politics has led to a very serious economic crisis. While false impressions are given on the Q2 performance (comparing it to Q2 2020), the real state of the economy is dire. Poverty incidence has risen, income and wages have fallen, micro and small businesses have closed down and many more are in ICU, EPF savings have been taken out and investment is at an all time low. Old divisive politics and incompetent management of economic policy is to blame. A new Merdeka team will give more confidence to everyone since we will be utilising all the ‘good people’ in Parliament and professionals.

While these positive inputs echoing our Agung’s views should be heeded, unfortunately, we also hear many politicians from the old divisive party politics system who are already jostling for posts and positions and say that the new PM has to make sure that he takes care of those who supported him! Worse still, we have ‘experts’ and ‘political analysts’ who seem to want to perpetuate this old divisive model.

Let us hope and pray that our Agung and his brother Rulers will make it crystal clear that Malaysia must have nothing less than a new deal. Let them reiterate their views that the new PM must reach out to the other side, must work for a genuine Malaysian Merdeka team. As we come closer to our Hari Merdeka of 31st August and Hari Malaysia on September 16th, let us embrace our Agung’s wish. It will truly be a Merdeka gift to all Malaysians.

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* Mohamed Aslam Haneef is a Professor, Department of Economics, IIUM.