Recently, a reader wrote an article in an online news portal `Why can't we have PM candidate from East M'sia?
There are 3 important requirements that have to be fulfilled for a potential candidate.
What are those?
The Constitution says:
“Notwithstanding anything in this Article, a person who is a citizen by naturalization or by registration under Article 17 shall not be appointed Prime Minister.” – Article 43 (7), Federal Constitution
… which basically disqualifies several members of our national football team, unfortunately.
But of course, we’ve got to address the gajah in the room: what about ethnicity/religion? Can a non-Malay, non-Muslim or a Bumiputra from Sabah or Sarawak who is a non Muslim person become Prime Minister?
The Constitution is silent on the issue of race or religion.
It isn’t impossible for a non-Malay, non-Muslim Malaysian to become Malaysian. it’s getting there, and staying there that’s the problem.
He/she must be a member of the House of Representatives (Dewan Rakyat)
Because the Constitution states that a Prime Minister must be a Member of Parliament, the place where 222 individuals yell insults at each other.
In short, being an MP first is the important element to qualify for the post of Malaysian Prime Minister.
Being eligible is one thing, getting selected by the YDP Agong is another.
The YDP Agong selects a ‘member of Parliament who is likely to command the support of the majority of the House’.
The Dewan Rakyat presently comprises 222 members, with Sabah and Sarawak allocated 25 and 31 seats respectively, for a combined 56 seats out of a total of 222 seats - 25.2% share of voting power.
There is no legal barrier preventing a leader from Sabah or Sarawak from holding the position.
However, commanding a majority as an East Malaysian candidate presents significant political hurdles due to several factors.
Malaysia's major political coalitions are based in Peninsular Malaysia.
A candidate from East Malaysia would typically need to lead or be fully endorsed by one of these dominant national coalitions (like PH or BN or PN) to secure the necessary support.
In the next GE ie the 16th or possibly the 17th GE, instead of historically leveraging their parliamentary bloc to act as kingmakers, political parties from Sabah & Sarawak should also add in the condition that the post of the Prime Minister should be fielded with an MP from either Sabah or Sarawak if any coalition wants to have their support for the formation of a government.
Not only a leader from the peninsula is "acceptable" to run the country.
East Malaysians should be acceptable too.
And West Malaysians should welcome this too.
FLK (leekhean.foo@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.