Cabinet team building- implications on leadership

The next installment of my meeting with Ibrahim Ali will have to wait. I am posting on certain other issues.

It's been a quite a while I posted writings on my meeting with the Oracle of Syed Putra. I meet him on a quite  regular basis. From him, I get certain insights into Malaysian politics. Because history does repeat itself, the current state of politics produce almost predictable outcomes similar to that played in earlier times.

Take cabinet appointments for example. The pattern of appointments is predictable. Dr Mahathir wouldn't want to appoint someone as brainy as him. That would place those people in direct competition with him. Musa Hitam was also brainy but two predatory tigers cannot exist on the same mountain. Moreover Tiger Musa has this unnerving behavior of acting smarter that he truly is. Tengku Razaleigh wasn't allowed to breathe the same air as Dr Mahathir did because Mahathir knows the budu- eating prince from Kelantan can outsmart him.

The unwanted effect of appointments in that manner is that it produces a team whose members gravitate towards the strong leader. The fortunes of a country then depend on the quality of a paramount leader and not on a team. One leader produces self perpetuation. A team produces self continuity.

When such a leader exits or expires, the whole country is thrown into a mess. The elevation of Pak Lah as our 5^th Prime Minister for example was a discredit on Dr Mahathir. He has not worked to produce a team which could bring in self continuity but rather, he operated alone. Everything revolves around him. Everyone gravitates towards him. He was the black hole that snuffed out lesser leaders.

Success would have to depend on a strong leader- a disciplinarian and mentally overwhelming. Mahathir had those qualities, Pak Lah didn't.

Pak lah didn't have the temperament or the qualities of DR Mahathir. PM Najib unfortunately is closer in temperament, verve and discipline to Pak Lah than DR Mahathir. It's logical then to infer that PM Najib has similar leadership qualities to Pak Lah than to Mahathir.

That places different demands on the leadership style of PM Najib. He is accommodative and indecisive at times. Success in managing a country would then depend on his ability to offer a crack team consisting of intelligent individuals with the drive, verve and discipline to carry out the agenda of this country. Why? Because his leadership personality could then be counter-balanced with strong team members.

 

If there is one lesson in leadership which PM Najib must quickly appreciate and acknowledge is the urgency to make changes quickly. He must act decisively and rapidly. If he wants to forge a new team, he must strike while the iron is hot. Fidel Ramos thought he could wait for several years to return Philippines to parliamentary democracy. By the time 4 years is up, everyone wants to be an autocratic president and the road to full democracy becomes difficult. Mrs. Arroyo hasn't done anything in 9 years. You want to make changes, you do it quickly. Pm Najib wants a team, he must make changes rapidly. Its better quicker than later. Now, in two years, elections are up and the usefulness of forging a new cabinet isn't urgent.

He made the mistake of not making changes quickly. Now he is compounding the mistakes by making so many wrong moves.

Appointing senators to important positions became more prominent actually during Tun Mahathir's time. My esteemed friend, The Oracle for instance can attest to the fact that his close friend, Tun  Daim was made a senator during Hussein Onn's time and then was made a minister by Dr Mahathir. History repeats itself in this manner now- the appointment of senators en route to holding government positions has a long tradition.

It's hard to accept that cabinet reshuffles aren't done in the expectation of appointing talented individuals in pursuit of objectives for the greater good of society. Instead they are done, as in the past to achieve matters of political expediency.

But PM Najib can choose to play smarter and better. Water level does rise above its spring source. But he can also play dumb as when appointing mental retards and those with no added value to the cabinet. The senators he appointed from PPP for example were done for what purpose? PPP is a party in the same category as a speak takraw club. It's a receptacle for collecting rejects and unwanted Malaysia Indians from MIC. PPP is a basket case that doesn't deserve any recognition except in the same breadth of a lotto or Bingo club run by Kaveas as MC.

It's very difficult for many of us to believe that this is a winnable team to manage our country. With so many senators and losers, the cabinet should be better named a loser's cabinet. Koh Tsu Koon lost, he was made a minister. Shahrizat lost, she was made a minister also. Palanivel wasn't fit to be considered a candidate for Hulu Selangor, yet he was made a senator and now a junior minister. Mukhriz Mahathir lost in his bid to become Ketua Pemuda, he was appointed a deputy minister. PM Najib's cabinet is known more for the appointment of senators and losers than for forging a seriously credible team to manage this country.

Is PM Najib rigorous in his thinking? Very hard to accept that. Here is why. Now the other MIC MP, a vice president of the party is a full minister and is therefore higher ranked than his deputy president. That makes the definition of a 'loser' carry a new meaning. Senator don't win elections, buy they have an easier time on being appointed minister.

The objective of appointing capable leaders in positions of substance and authority by which they can contribute to achieve that overriding agenda of the nation, then becomes lost in translation.

What cabinet reshuffle? There wasn't any. The PM was just playing musical chairs- placing them so that his BN partners don't lose more credibility instead of thumping to the floor. Or giving his BN partners ring buoys so THEY won't drown and in turn can save the BN itself from going under.

Hence MCA is rewarded for just being around just like a person listening in to a business deal expects to receive a 'hearing' allowance. The litmus test is, if the cabinet reshuffle can only invite scorn and ridicule from the voting and voting influencing public, better not to have one at all.

Consider the case of Palanivel. If this person was said to be NOT FIT for voter consumption in Hulu Selangor and by that token, rejected by the people, how do we justify his appointment? It's made to appear that what the PM has done is completely in defiance of what the rakyat wishes. Not reflecting his people first sloganeering is it?

Has Palanivel gone through some recently discovered method of laundering politicians which can turn a political reject into a new minted must have?

Palanivel's appointment can only indicate that all is not well in MIC after all. He needs to be given a government post to shore up his chances as the next MIC president. Without a post, he can offer nothing to the MIC. Right now, the MIC is split into 3 camps- Samy and Palani , Minister Subramaniam and Samy's bugbear- 'whisky' Subramaniam. These are 3 contenders to claim the MIC turf.

Which actually gives PM Najib an unsolvable paradox. MIC paradoxically but actually, needs strongman Samy Vellu to balance the contending forces in MIC. He can use for instance his unchallengeable prerogative of sacking and appointing MIC members by sacking Whisky Subra for instance- that would still not eliminate other contenders to stand in for Whisky Subra. Maybe this is the radical change he was suggesting yesterday. That would certainly cement his reputation as Samy Sivaji the boss, numero uno of the Sentul Sentinels.

Who are the PM's Indian advisers? Haven't they identified a potential Samy Velu replacement who can command the respect and support of the majority of MIC members and who can push the BN agenda?

UMNO doesn't want a compliant MIC president. They need someone who can work magic on the Malaysian Indians. They need a Malaysian Indian who not only can clear the heaps of rice on the banana leaf with all the sambal, dried slated chillies, tairu, rasem and the fiery mutton vindaloo all at once, but also a person able to out scare his opponents. Right now, Samy Velu is the only personality in MIC politics who can rip open his shirts and challenge others to a fight. MIC needs such a figure. UMNO must cultivate such a figure.

Maybe it's Sothinathan. Then appoint him a senator but no necessity to appoint him to a government post . Let him do his rounds galvanizing Malaysian Indians support.

Instead, Pm Najib appoints a reject to the cabinet whereas our favorite Kamalanathan who won in a constituency larger than Melaka was left holding his balls. He should be appointed instead because he delivered Hlulu Selangor to BN. Chor the MCA horse was someone implicated in the PKFZ financial fiasco, was given a ministerial post. That makes a mockery of the PM's commitment to cleanse the government from the stains of corruption.

What PM Najib did recently was just tweaking here and there. It's another move to strengthen the image of a sitting PM increasingly better known for his trying to be all things to everyone. In this particular instance, as a back-scratcher to an increasingly irrelevant and effeminate MCA.

Whatever for do we need to please the MCA? They have what?- 8000 members in Hulu Selangor incapable of delivering Chinese votes in Hulu Selangor? It's fast becoming a party not capable of delivering to the BN. Its more prominent in using Chinese support in potential, to negotiate political deals instead of contributing to making BN stronger.

The recent cabinet changes that took place represented what the sitting PM can do. In other words, do as he pleases and in the course of doing so, showing to us, the public that cabinet appointments are not dictated by utilitarian principles but by political expediencies. Were those appointed of great use to the demands of running this country? That should be the acid test. But like Pemuda UMNO says, it's the PM prerogative.

Except that the PM is not living in a glass house. He invites comments and assessments from public spirited individuals. You can no longer do anything that affects or potentially affects the wellbeing of the voting or voting-influencing public without inviting responses.