Date of publication: 08-05-2013
The first task of Prime Minister Najib Razak is to form the Cabinet. And we can expect the process to be different this time.
The Cabinet earlier to include the right mix of representation of the various parties component of Barisan Nasional.
But with the poor performance of some parties component at the 13th parliamentary elections, the choices, based on the needs of the party, be reduced.
And the MCA, although it won seven seats in the Parliament, has stated that it is not part of the Government on executive level.
It's a whole new ball-game, and Najib has to look at his options carefully.
Politics aside, the Prime Minister has a big job on his hands in turning Malaysia into a fully developed country by the year 2020, a mere seven years away.
The transformation agenda is a top priority and the many changes that the PM has introduced over the last four years of his leadership will begin to pay off in this new parliamentary term.
That's why he should be a "lean and mean" team to work with him.
The previous Cabinet consists of ministers from 28. Although some found the size too large, that Cabinet was actually smaller than that of its predecessor, which consisted of 32 minis-ters.
Ideally, Najib should be able to start on a completely clean slate, but in reality he should consider, first, who of his former Cabinet members would be maintained.
In this regard, taking into account the results of the elections, it would do good for him to drop that as inappropriate for the difficult tasks and challenges is considered.
Then he has to find the right mix of territorial/State representation and gender considerations.
The representation of Sabah and Sarawak will certainly be an important factor if these two countries a central role in providing the voices to Barisan played.
But what do the citizens?
As can be seen by the feedback generated by our readers as we put this question to them, will have a smaller Cabinet ensure better governance.
With a smaller team, the members can be held responsible and they would be more prudent and responsive to the needs of the population.
Najib may also want to consider including members of non-political, often referred to as technocrats, in his Cabinet.
There is much wisdom in taking this path as the work of the Board of the country essentially about the smooth running of the administration comes to policies are properly implemented.
Artists known in the private sector, for example, are excellent. They need to know that they risk getting booted out should they fail to deliver results.
Najib has already introduced, via Pemandu, for example, the key performance indexes for his ministers. But this can be taken to the next level with better drivers.
Although the Cabinet consists of ministers only, there is probably too much luggage in having too many deputy ministers. In the last Cabinet there were 40 of them.
Gentlemen, right, are there to help the ministers. But in reality, they are probably there because of political considerations.
Bearing in mind that we such a large public administration, with its core team of highly trained, top officials have to help the Cabinet, it may not be necessary to have too many delegates.
We must also understand that with only 133 Barisan MPs select, would it be better to co-opt not too many of them in the Executive branch of Government.
They can continue a meaningful role as backbencher in addition to the members of Parliament of the opposition, to a healthy check and balance system to the actions of the Executive.
In the end, it's still the only jurisdiction of Najib to his team.
With the elections out of the way, we hope that he will have a good team to help him run the Government. He needs all the help he can get to the strengthening of public support for his new Government.
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