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Why is there no finance minister?

A most important ministry in any country is finance. Who heads it believes he has arrived and his ambitions now include a shot at being prime minister. In Malaysia, its more important function is to make who sits there very rich indeed, if that is what he desires. The portfolio is important, but who holds it is not amongst the politically ambitious. Those who are, like the jailed former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, rues the day they accepted it. The prime minister of the day would not allow it.

Once, finance was in the province of the MCA, until it gave it up amidst the 1969 general election when the MCA thought, wrongly as it turned out, it had lost the Chinese support. Even when the MCA president held it, he had designs beyond his station and wanted to be second deputy prime minister as well. UMNO would have none of it, not in the early stages of the New Economic Policy, and the MCA lost what it little influence it had on policy. Be that as it may, finance is too important to be in the hands of a part-time cabinet minister.

Finance is not as important as it once was. Today, it is a revenue ministry, with economic policy under a seperate minister in the Prime Minister's Department. Tun Daim Zainuddin, who resigned as finance minister and UMNO treasurer after he could not account for UMNO finances, realised this. He had held both portfolios. When Dato' Seri Anwar became finance minister, his hands were tied since Tun Daim kept his fingers firmly on economic policy by remaining as minister without portfolio. Tun Daim returned to finance when Dato' Seri Anwar was dismissed, and subsequently jailed, until he could no more. The Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, took the portfolio in the interim.

In the six months since, he could find no one who could, or would, take it with UMNO's blessings. That he could not from amongst UMNO MPs is itself an indictment of their quality and ability. That he has to resort to unelected men through the Senate, indeed as every appointment since the 1999 General Election is, reflects a larger problem. He wants someone he can trust. He does not trust the UMNO MPs, a reflection of the continued chasm between the cultural Malay from whom he is alienated, and the political Malay with his dictatorial tendency.

Nor does he dare appoint an existing minister, for whoever he appoints has a single-minded notion that he could be a better prime minister than the good doctor himself. This extends to his heir presumptive, the deputy prime minister Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. When he left on his current holiday to such exotic destinations as Argentina and the Antarctica, he would not appoint Dato' Seri Abdullah as acting prime minister. He did appoint him acting finance minister though. It is not confidence but fear and doubt that he reveals when he is so petty.

So, when I asked, on Sang Kancil, who ran Malaysia's finances, it touched a raw nerve. Besides the usual frothing in the mouth from his die-hard supporters for suggesting that Dr Mahathir dare not appoint anyone whose loyalty he is unsure of, and the man in the running, as it stands, is none than his son, others questioned, in emails, if I was way off the mark, that I should not complicate an otherwise difficult decision, and the least said on this the better. Two unsubscribed because of the article. For a man quick to decide firmly and stick to it, Dr Mahathir strangely cannot now make up his mind. Why? The two men he wanted, as I wrote, is unacceptable to UMNO. He now talks of a deputy finance ministers, even an additional two, to resolve his predicament.

I would not have written the article if he had appointed a finance minister at least before he left. The usual names crop up -- Dato' Seri' Abdullah, Datin Rafidah Aziz, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak, Tan Sri Muhiyuddin Yassin, Tan Sri Azman Hashim, Tan Sri Abul Hassan Sulaiman, Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yaacob -- but whom UMNO wants he would not appoint, and whom he wants UMNO would disallow. He cannot ride roughshod over UMNO. He now thinks of Dato' Mokhzani of the bin Mahathir clan. This brought a flurry of emails caked in filth to question if my parents were married when I was born. He would not, indeed cannot, fill that vacancy. That whilst he may be in physical control by reason of the awesome power and feudal aura he has, he steadily and surely loses his grip. The New York Times has an article yesterday of how Sept 11 saved Dr Mahathir. It did. He is more autocratic than ever. But the short term gains he got from that, when he swiftly branded the fundamentalist Muslims who do not support him and UMNO as terrorist-inclined threatens to backfire.

When he returns from his holiday, he would have his hands full with more pressing matters than finance. As to the filthy emails asking me if Dr Mahathir is mad to appoint his son the finance minister, no, he is not mad. Never was. Never is. Nor is it likely he would be. A brilliant politician steps ahead of his rivals in UMNO and in the country but a man nevertheless who best is behind him. His only concern now is for history to give him a good pass mark.

He wants to keep the contentious issues quiet whilst he deals with more pressing matters. It is not a sign of absolute control that he cannot get his party to accept his choice of a finance minister. Nor that he cannot name one from amongst those in his own cabinet. Nor that he must consider his son? No, Mr Ahmad Ismail and his ilk, he is not stupid. But should he be to appoint his son finance minister? And the more pressing question: why cannot he appoint a finance minister months after the former man disappeared from office? Is that not a more relevant question?

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my






        
Ke atas    Balik Menu Utama    Tarikh artikal diterbitkan : 15 Februari 2002

Diterbitkan oleh : Lajnah Penerangan dan Dakwah DPP Kawasan Dungun, Terengganu
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