SHAH ALAM: Musical chairs. As you are aware, Tun Mahathir Mohamad has been appointed as an interim Prime Minister by the King today. The announcement was made following Tun Mahathir’s resignation as the 7th PM earlier in the day. His resignation also meant that the Pakatan Harapan coalition government, set up following the May 9, 2018 general election has been dissolved.
It is likely that Tun Mahathir will set up a new coalition government in the next few days or so. Failing which Tun Mahathir will have to call for a general election. Or DS Anwar Ibrahim managed to convince some MPs to come to his side and become the 8th PM instead.
Although the other two scenarios remained a possibility, it is likely that Tun Mahathir will appoint the main cabinet members in th next few days or so. He appointed the DPM and the finance, home and defence ministers, two days after he took his oath as PM in May 2018.
As in May 2018, I will not offer any guess as to whom will become the next home and defence ministers – there are too many candidates in the coalition which is supporting Tun Mahathir including those from his previous party, Bersatu and the rebels from PKR. I am aware of the list of ministers circulating on Sunday but I am pretty sure that it is a fake as events in the last 24 hours showed that the situation was very fluid.
Even his former coalition partners had announced their support for Tun Mahathir as PM, hours before the announcement of him being the interim premier. It is unlikely that MPs and members of the former coalition will be considered for the cabinet posts as this will mean that they have to abandon Anwar on his own.
Anyhow, I think Tun Mahathir will have to make his move as soon as possible as the country’s economic situation makes this an urgent matter. What about national security issues then? Your guess is as good as mine.
— Malaysian Defence
@marhalim
he resigned as bersatu chairman as well, apparently he does not want to work with umno. So it might not go how most people think it will.
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That’s what his former coalition partners are saying. If he is going to set up another cabinet without his former coalition partners, he has to get the Umno people to back it including all of those who have been charged in court. And this was self evident from six months when the rumours started flying.
Unless he managed to get DAP and Amanah to abandon Anwar, of course. Anyhow I mentioned that in the post itself.
the current event in malaysia make me wonder just what happen to those promise and pledge to make malaysia better.all of them would rather fight to eat those little piece of pie rather working together to make it larger pie and eat together. this also involve the current ruling party which is disappointing considering they should learn from past ruling party mistake. in the end no matter who up there, only the politician side and crony always on winning take than us normal citizen.
funny is after all this,still got politician and some of their die hard fan believing and even talking about honor and fair in politic even after seeing all back stab and stupid comment made onto each other. after all the same politician also accepting the person whom they called firaun and zalim for a decade as their coalition leader should tell us something there.
lets us see where this will lead us. just hope the next govt formed without problem(as if) and the transition of power will happen fluidly for all our sake.
The people wanted change right? Well the people got change, just nobody told them it was the change they were expecting. Malaysia politics, never a dull moment with Mahathir and Anwar.
Anyhoo in the context of defence, if Mahathir wins expect whatever US donations to dry up real fast. If Anwar wins, we should expect Santa to come early bearing many gifts among others.
So in the context of our country’s defence wants, needs and limited resources, clearly we know whose side we should be on.
Sad. All because of the ambition of one traitor
Our neighbor increase defense budget buy this and that… we still stuck in the same spot. Dun talk about defense, our economy going be the 2nd worst after 1998.
Yeah michael..
Its all the same bull everytime..sg announce defence budget of over usd 10 bill..indonesia close to 10..n here we are still cant able to touch even rm20bill..now i do hope govt or mof will granted 1% defence budget from gpd for the next foreseeable future..
We are still in the dark on what is actually going on. We still dont know on which side Dr M is really on right now. Too early to talk about anything political really, more so on defence matters.
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It simple really, Tun don’t want Anwar. So if his former coalition partners wants him back they have to abandon Anwar. If that didn’t happened, Tun can always say he has no other option but to form a government with the others. If he had to call an election he will do the same thing
This is really a gamble by Tun M.
From my point of view, if he cannot get the numbers, there would be a new PM 8 with a whole new cabinet,
with a probability that Tun M as one of the opposition members.
Lee – “Sad. All because of the ambition of one traitor”
That’s being very subjective and simplistic.
There are no permanent friends in politics and all politicians do things that are morally wrong but are not illegal per see. As far as I’m concerned various individuals (from all or most of the parties) are responsible for the current mess
Les we forget; politics is about gaining power and holding on to that power.
Michael,
Good for our neighbours but so?
We should and have to take care of ourselves first rather than make comparisons with our neighbours….
It’s not just a question of just raising the defence budget. We need a change in mindset and urgency and a defence policy which includes an objective and realistic long term look at the kind of threats faced and the responses needed.
We also need a complete revamp of how we go about procurement including the part played by the local industry which has been largely (there are exceptions) counter productive.
If this is not done we’ll continue making the same mistakes over and over again ……
UMNO PAS and several other Opposition parties have withdrawn their endorsement for the unity government under the Interim PM. Regardless of the whys and nots, I’d thinking perhaps a snap election as espoused by Tan Sri Annuar Musa is the correct way to get us out of this mess. The mandate from the Rakyat should right things. And steadier & wiser hands may perhaps be helming MinDef thereafter…
Tun dont like DS Anwar and DS Najib. He use DS anwar to take down DS Najib and he use someone else (maybe UMNO) to to close DS Anwar chance to be next PM without breaking his promise to DS Anwar. That is politic, no forever friend nor enemy.
It is a simple as that but the drama are played more complicated so people keep on guessing.
I thunk the creation of the new sickman of southeast asian nation is on the way
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Not Umno lah, its Azmin and the gang and at the same time hoping that DAP and Amanah ditched Anwar. They didn’t, even after he resigned. UMNO saw an opportunity of course to get back in power but as DAP and Amanah didn’t dumped Anwar, Tun tacked backed to the current position. I am of the opinion, today, that a general election will be called
My vote goes to the one who can get us plenty of free stuff from Uncle Sam. Beggars can’t be chooser so if we’re short in a lot of things, we can’t be choosy.
I agree with Joe. In the event, things go South for MAF procurement-wise, it’s good, expedient to go for the party that actually talks ‘defence’. And one that will have fewer qualms getting ATM free quality stuff from the US trash pit in the next decade as this nation struggles through this political quagmire.
The non-partisan government proposed by our interim prime minister, Tun M.
Is it me or in a way our ministers positions can be filled by people not from any political party?
For example, our defense minister might be appointed from former military generals per se.
Just need some clarifications & opinions on this.
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Yes ministers can be appointed to the Cabinet without any affiliation to any party but they need to be appointed to the Dewan Negara. That said these people can only be appointed once the PM himself or herself is sworn in. So they cannot be involved in the unity government in the first place
Taib,
Seriously? You actually hope or think that in the current political/economic environment that any party will “talk defence”? Why would it when the average voter doesn’t give a toss? As mentioned; what’s needed is a change of mindset and focus together with a long term realistic and objective assessment of our future defence needs in line with our threats perceptions, geo-political situation and finances. This will take time and the needed will.
We have never been totally adverse to receiving stuff transferred from the U.S. as long as it suits our requirements and as long as we in the long term can operate and support it without too much expense and hassle. We have in the past turned down certain offers because it didn’t suit our requirements and in the long term would have led to support/maintenance issues. We shouldn’t assume that just because another country can get a new or pre owned piece of hardware and be able to support it; that the same automatically applies to us: even vice versa.
People go ga-ga about equipment but the U.S. (and Australia) has long sponsored training or for MAF personnel in various training establishments.
“U.S. (and Australia) has long sponsored training or for MAF personnel in various training establishments.”
Yeah, on borrowed equipment. Its nice PR show for our guys to storm beachheads in AAVs but how would that help us when we have none of the Amtracs? If our next powers that be could get them (and many other US stuff), then we can talk about the relevance of such trainings.