Mahathir is not lame-duck Prime
Minister but has arrogated powers in the 16-month transition period which he
had never done in the past 21 years
Media Statement
by Lim Kit Siang
(Penang, Tuesday):
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday he was no
"lame-duck" Prime Minister although he would resign in October, unlike in
the United States where a second-term President on the way out is viewed as
a "lame duck" president as people would not take his instructions and things
would not run so well.
Referring to his own case of impending resignation in October at what he
said was probably his "last encounter" as Prime Minister with top civil
servants at the official opening of the National Institute of Public
Administration (Intan) Management Technology Centre in Kuala Lumpur,
Mahathir said: "If I make a decision, people still implement it. So I have
every reason to be grateful."
Last June, following the announcement of the 16-month transition plan for
Mahathir's resignation as Prime Minister after the Organisation of Islamic
Conference (OIC) Summit in Kuala Lumpur on October 24 and 25 this year, I
had asked whether it is a plan for a lame-duck Prime Minister and lame-duck
Deputy Prime Minister for the next 16 months - whether because of one
stepping on the toes of another or with each trying to avoid stepping on the
toes of another.
The last five months have proved Mahathir right that he is no lame-duck
Prime Minister even after the announcement of the 16-month transition plan
for his retirement although the jury is still out as to whether in these 16
months the country has a lame-duck Deputy Prime Minister.
In fact, far from having a lame-duck Prime Minister, the country is seeing
an even more assertive Prime Minister in the 16-month transition period,
taking decisions, arrogating powers and usurpring jurisdictions which he had
never done in his 21 years as Prime Minister before his sudden and tearful
announcement of resignation at the UMNO General Assembly last June which
later gave way to the 16-month transition plan.
A good example is the manner in which the Cabinet was completely by-passed
in the important decision to establish the most high-powered committee in
the nation's 45-year history to review the national education system to
rectify the "hijacking" of the national education system and address the
system's two biggest failures- to foster national unity and provide quality
education.
UMNO Supreme Council decided on November 29 to set up the education review
committee under Mahathir's chairmanship, comprising solely UMNO leaders and
which started work holding its first meeting in the Prime Minister's Office
in Putrajaya the following week, but the approval of the Cabinet was never
sought in the past one month whether for its establishment, membership,
terms of reference or modus operandi, reducing the Cabinet to a redundant
appendage of the UMNO Supreme Council.
This should be rectified immediately, and the Cabinet at its meeting
tomorrow should take the decision to give the public two weeks for feedback
on the terms of reference and composition of the second Mahathir education
review committee.
The Cabinet should also ensure that the establishment and functioning of the
highest-powered education committee in the nation's history is also the most
democratic and consultative one, with Malaysians able to participate in the
process every step of the way, starting with the determination of its terms
of reference and nomination of members of the education review committee
representing all sections of the Malaysian society, covering the full
spectrum of diverse political, educational and civil society opinion.
To set the ball rolling for the most democratic education review involving
the fullest public participation and consultation, the Cabinet tomorrow
should make public the comprehensive education reform report which was
commissioned by the National Economic Action Council (NEAC) in May last year
and which was the basis for the UMNO Supreme Council decision on Nov. 29.
Another example of Mahathir assuming more powers in the 16-month transition
period as Prime Minister never the case in his first 21 years in the highest
office of the land is the humiliating experience of the MCA leadership over
the furore from the abstention of the two Penang MCA State Assembly members,
Tan Cheng Liang (Jawi) and Lim Boo Chang (Datuk Keramat) in the vote on the
motion by the DAP Assemblyman for Batu Lanchang, Law Heng Kiang in the
Penang State Assembly to defer the RM1.02 billion Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR)
project.
Never before had the MCA leadership been so publicly humiliated not only by
UMNO, but other smaller Barisan Nasional component parties, in the history
of the Barisan Nasional as over the case of the Penang MCA duo.
I had never subscribed to various theories about Mahathir's sudden and
dramatic resignation at the close of the UMNO General Assembly last June,
that it was a sandiwara (play-acting) or part of a Machiavellian plot by
Mahathir to consolidate his power base or to stage a political come-back
after the OIC Summit in October.
The establishment of the highest-powered education review committee in the
nation's history (as no Prime Minister had ever headed such a committee),
his single-minded implementation of the use of English to teach mathematics
and science in schools from Std. One in primary schools and the recent
Cabinet appointment of Datuk Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis as Second Finance Minister
and promotions of Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor as Minister in the PM's
Department and Datuk Zainuddin Maidin as Deputy Information Minister have
been cited as arguments that Mahathir was not preparing to step down in
October.
I do not agree as I do not see these as signs that Mahathir was preparing to
continue as Prime Minister after October, but evidence that Mahathir will
not let-up or slow-down in the exercise of his powers and will in fact usurp
the jurisdictions of other organs and institutions of government not done in
his first 21 years as Prime Minister even up to his very last days in office
- and Malaysians must expect important policy changes and announcements even
in his last month, last week and last day in office before he steps down as
the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia.
Mahathir is therefore no lame-duck Prime Minister in the 16-month transition
period but his arrogance of power is even worse than his first 21 years in
office.
(7/1/2003)
*
Lim Kit Siang, DAP National
Chairman
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http://dapmalaysia.org