Pakatan Need Not Form A Shadow Cabinet
Yes, we all knew that PR has increased its members of parliament (MPs) in the last general elections (GE13) and BN did only managed with a slim majority. The BN's cabinet has been formed and taken its oath of office recently and they had also started their work, whereas on the PR side, many of us are wondering when would their shadow cabinet be announced to oversee the BN government ministries.
We are now repeating this, PR need not form a shadow cabinet. Why? There are so many reasons onto why PR should not do with the formation of the shadow cabinet. First, in the Federal Constitution itself, there is no provision that recognize institution of a shadow cabinet by the Opposition MPs. Asides, these Opposition MPs are also not provided with adequate facilities within the parliamentary institution which regards on studies and research work. No annual allocations nor any grants were also provided to these Opposition MPs for the purpose of supporting their constituency and development projects. Opposition MPs, until today, are totally dependable on public donations as well as excess of funds from their respective political parties.
Second, our nation's political and ministerial administration are still very much based on racial separation, that is, the portfolios of defence, home affairs, finance or foreign affairs, for examples should belong to the Malay MPs, while the health, transportation, housing and local government portfolios are reserved for the Chinese and so on. So if the PR were to appoint a Chinese MP to take up the defence or home affairs portfolios, then BN (Umno) would hit them back by saying that the PR's future government would be dominated by the Chinese leaders. Same goes to if PR were to appoint a Malay MP to maintain the health and transportation portfolios, BN (MCA) would in turn accuse the PR's future administration of backstabbing the Chinese community by giving up the community's representation in the government. In other words, in the BN side, even if they are a multiracial coalition of racial based political parties standing as a one entity, but their words and interpretations are still racially based, politically.
Therefore, if the PR were to announce its full list of shadow cabinet, the BN will politicise the entire segment of the PR's shadow cabinet almost everyday in order to try to break up the opposition coalition with their racial interpretations on the representation of the PKR, DAP and PAS MPs in the shadow cabinet. With this, BN is hoping to create a tense situation and dissatisfaction amongst leaders of the PR component parties which regards on the ministerial portfolio allocations.
Third, for the references and track records of the PR's good governance, our people could just refer to the performances of the Selangor, Penang and Kelantan state governments. Look at the increase economic and financial stature of these state governments, the reduction of deficits since they took over in 2008, the number of investments generated, transparency and accountable administration, corruptions and power abuse being wiped out, mismanagement has been reduced and so on. These are the positive impact as the result of the PR's governance and administration where the people could look into. Yes, there are some errors which occurs from time to time, and these are trial and errors when PR started to govern these states five years ago and in the process, they bound to be more errors because of their inexperience and lack of exposures in certain areas or expertise. We call these all learning from mistakes. Even at the corporate levels and business entities did have all these kinds of lessons for their managers too.
So, what is the big deal? BN has been ruling our nation for decades, and we are certain that their mistakes, wrongdoings, crimes and scandals are loaded in tons as compare to PR's first five years of performance. Clear examples, BN has been ruling these state governments for decades, and the governments' deficits are expensively growing every year. But when the PR took over in 2008, they managed to reduced the states' deficits in less than five years. This is what we call proven track records.
Now, let us come back to the parliamentary stage. Instead of mumbling on the shadow cabinet and its composition of portfolios, PR leaders should instead focus on establishing the front bench committees or parliamentary based committees to oversee the performances of the government ministries and the other important agencies. These kind of front bench or parliamentary based committees should also encourage the participation of more Opposition MPs instead of allocating the portfolios to only the senior Opposition MPs. The membership of these committees should also be opened to more junior Opposition MPs in order for them to gain an insight into the workings of these ministries, the portfolios, the functions, research work and certainly the amount of other exposures in governance as well.
Because of the lack of support and insufficient allocation within the parliamentary administration, the PR MPs should also make full use of their respective public-funded think tanks. PKR has its Institut Rakyat (IR), while DAP has its Research for Social Advancement (REFSA) and PAS with its party research centre.
So, except for the current crippled Federal Constitution which did not accord any full recognition to the Opposition bench as a full-fledged institution similar to that of the federal government, PR is in no way short of any support. The people has already demonstrated their support, previously and currently, be it morally or financially. It is now up to the PR MPs to show to the people that they are much more capable than those errant BN MPs in terms of governance and leadership.
