Wednesday, November 12, 2008

What twist?

The Malaysian Insider has it today that there exist a legal poser in the event Md Taib or Ali Rustam is the one elected as Deputy President of UMNO. By virtue of them not being an MP, the two candidates are therefore not eligible to become the Deputy PM. The Malaysian Insider article reads, inter-alia;

But only Muhyiddin is an elected Member of Parliament. Muhammad, a senator, wasn't fielded in the general election, while Ali is an elected member of Malacca's state legislative assembly.

Some analysts consider this a problem if either Ali or Muhammad wins the election, he will become, by convention, deputy prime minister and a heartbeat away from the premiership. He will also act as premier and chair Cabinet meetings in the absence of the prime minister
.

Read more Twist in race for No. 2 Umno post

What legal poser, what twist? Ali Rustam or Md Taib can still become the DP of UMNO & Najib can still appoint anyone else from the next in line that are elected to fill the 3 spots for the vice presidency. I don't think any of the two will object to that. Afterall they always fancy themselves as "loyal servants" of UMNO, isn't it? Everybody knows that it is just another convention for the PM to appoint his UMNO DP as DPM. Heck, he can even appoint someone else from MCA, MIC, PBS & what not as long as the chosen one is a member of parliament & from the ruling coalition!

...but if at all Ali or Md Taib is elected as the DP & Najib decides not to appoint his newly elected UMNO DP as DPM (by way of an unnecessary by-election & waste public funds just to make the new no.2 as MP etc.) but someone else instead, my bet is that the person won't be Muhyiddin. I have this sneaky feeling that paklah & co. still has it, you know that ever deadly tai-chi...they still can get things their way ... (wink!)

8 comments:

Small Talk said...

Tuan Lawyer,
What legal poser?
Malaysian Constitution did not even provide for the post of DEPUTY Prime Minister!
Look at Article 43 & Definition of Members of the Administration (Article 160).
We can be WITHOUT the Deputy Prime Minister?! Mutatis mutandis State Constitution...no need for Deputy MB or Deputy CM!
Cheers!!

Lawyer Kampung said...

Interesting scenario Dato! Why not? TDM has been without a DPM for quite sometime dulu (post Anwar), & so did Paklah when he was "undecided" on who he should be appointing as DPM earlier on.. yes, why not? ;-)

Gelombang Rakyat said...

Saya pernah saksikan pemimpin yang tidak berhati perot, bila dia berdendam, dahsyat jadinya...

Lawyer Kampung said...

Zubli, just reading the word "dahsyat" from your comment send shivers down my spine... "berdendam, tidak berhati perot" must be one interesting story to blog about ni bro..but somehow or rather I have feeling that my guess on who you are referring to might be correct..haha then again, takpalah, saya tunggu Zubli blog dulu pasal tu.. :-)

Anonymous said...

Mr loyar

Easypeasy. Just appoint him senator like they did to many ministers not MP.
Don't fuss about who will be deputy president.
Be it Muhyiddin, Ali Rustam or Muhammad, they won't be PM.
All of them are older than Najib.
Najib will cling to power as long as he can. By then the young turks now greedy for power will take over.

Singh Is Kinng said...

Salam Tuan Lawyer,

Twist and turn in politic are common. And I found that setiakawan team is now singing praise not only for Khairy and Bang Ali, but also to Najib. On the other hand, they throw wild accusation towards Abang Din.

A kind of out of box, Najib and Khairy combine forces to eliminate threat from Mukhriz and Abang Din. Mike Tyson pulls out and leaves Abang Din in desperate, at the end Khairy win KP and Bang Ali wins the DP. Since Bang Ali is not MP, the vacancy of deputy will be offered to Khairy. Is this possible, well they've got the time factor.

Wassalam.

Anonymous said...

many people missunderstood the malaysian law. they must learn constitution. deputy PM is just a mere convention and not even been mentioned in the constitution.

http://writtenbyhim.wordpress.com/2008/11/13/forget-about-bangsa-malaysia/

Lawyer Kampung said...

Bros idzan ismail, piggy singh & dr.sid, thanks for the comments. ;-)