PM now Acting Education Minister: Are we all stupid?
Now every Minister can be Acting! Bravo to the Malaysian Cabinet and the Pakatan Harapan government.
If anybody wants to learn how to overide a promise, just follow the government’s cue and one cannot be wronged. So much brouhaha about ministers not holding two or more positions in the Cabinet but now acting as a minister for another portfolio is perfectly fine.
The prime minister says he will act until a suitable candidate is found. Again, no definite time limit.
Just like he says PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be the next prime minister but with no definite time given in future.
And the irony is that his deputy, Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail even went a step further to endorse Mahathir to be acting education minister by saying that it shows how important the portfolio is, so much that the prime minister himself took it upon himself to run it.
In essence, both the prime minister and his deputy confirm that there is no intelligent and capable person within the current pool of so-called leaders to take the position.
By extension, the delay in handing powers to Anwar can also be construed as Mahathir not having the confidence in him running the country.
The ‘on the job training’ approach employed by the current government for the Cabinet ministers has definitely taken a path towards failure.
After 20 months we have not improved on many fronts and yet ironically the people are still saying more time should be given.
The prime minister himself has no confidence in his charge that he has to take an acting role for another portfolio speaks volumes of the ministers and the deputies.
Why is the current deputy education minister not made the acting minister? After all, it is temporary as said by Pakatan and the Cabinet. By default and convention, it is only proper and professional that the deputy takes charge of a division or department or ministry if the head is no more.
The Pakatan government had set a precedent of sort.
Does this mean that any other minister other than Wan Azizah can be acting prime minister in the event Mahathir is not in the country?
Is Malaysia so barren of talent that not a single person has the brains to be education minister?
This is all turning out to be a big slap and joke.
Narinder Pal Singh is a veteran political observer
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of The Leaders Online.
